Downy Woodpecker

After missing almost all the birding walks with friends in the spring and fall, I pushed myself out the front door two days ago, 17 November 2014 and joined them for a leisurely walk in Fish Creek Park.

I left them shortly before the end of the walk and called in to see if there was any sign of the little Long-tailed Weasel that I had seen three days earlier, on 13 November. A few friends had the same idea, so it was nice to have people to talk to while we watched and waited. We were lucky enough to see the little Weasel and I was able to get a few shots. The first time the Weasel appeared, my camera wouldn't function at all and I missed some good chances. Thankfully, I discovered that I had accidentally moved a small lever on the side of the camera to a different position - so easily done at any time, but especially so when wearing a pair of fleece winter gloves over a pair of thin knitted gloves! The local Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches and this male Downy Woodpecker kept us company while we stood and waited.

"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 AllAbout Birds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/downy_woodpecker/id