Today was quite the day for red bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus). The morning started out with one up in the big oak tree in my back yard. As the day progressed, individual birds kept showing up in various trees. At one point there were three of these gorgeous woodpeckers all in the same tree. That actually wasn’t working out so well, though, because the two males kept chasing each other around instead of working at finding something to eat. Boys!

As you know, the weather has been pretty cool by our standards lately, and that has most of our insects either dead or torpid and the woodpeckers are hungry. Since there aren’t many insects available in the trees, the woodpeckers have been coming to the feeding stations to get mealworms. I know that’s why there were so many around this morning, but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable or interesting to see them.