Downy Woodpecker

This photo was taken a couple of days ago, on 4 February 2016, when I was on a birding walk with friends, in Weaselhead. Unfortunately, it was heavily overcast - though there was no sign of the sun, it wasn't that cold. Many of our temperatures this winter have been so ridiculously mild. On Monday and Tuesday of this coming week, the forecast is for PLUS 11C and 13C! Whatever happened to the -20Cs and -30Cs? Makes you wonder what our summer is going to be like!

The following is a list of the species seen:

FFCPPSoc. BIRDING, Weaselhead Natural Area, Calgary, 0915-1215, Thu, 04Feb2016. Heavy overcast, NW wind 15kph, -2 to 3°C. Combined results, 2 groups.

1. Bald Eagle-1ad
2. Downy Woodpecker-5
3. Hairy Woodpecker-2
4. Northern Flicker-1
5. Blue Jay-3+
6. Black-billed Magpie-3
7. Common Raven-5
8. Black-capped Chickadee-20
9. Boreal Chickadee-3
10. Red-breasted Nuthatch-1 heard
11. White-breasted Nuthatch-2
12. Bohemian Waxwing-1
13. Pine Grosbeak-40+
14. House Finch-8+
15. White-winged Crossbill-1
16. Common Redpoll-150
17. Pine Siskin-50
18. American Goldfinch-1

Coyote-1
Red Squirrel-8
White-tailed Deer-4+

"The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, barely outsizing them. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id/