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Noticed this female red bellied woodpecker on the tree right outside my shop yesterday....



Unfortunately only had a kit lens on the camera and she was gone before I could switch to a proper zoom, so these are cropped quite a lot....



We have had an explosion of woodpeckers here over the last few years, thanks to these guys....



Emerald Ash Borer - lots of food so the woodpecker population is very healthy here right now. The same can't be said for our ash trees of course. We have taken down about 12 ash trees on our property and have spent thousands trying to save some of the bigger and more prominent ash trees....we are losing the battle though, and surely more will have to be cut down. The good thing is we have a lot of firewood. And the larvae do make some funky patterns under the bark as their are killing the tree...larvae art!



Cheers, Al

You're gonna need a bigger woodpecker....

Yes very much the case. It's an Asian beetle that has been marching North from the US for many years. They actually tried cutting it off before it reached as far North as I am by cutting down every ash tree in a 10 km band across a part of the province that is bordered by Lake Erie to the South, and Lake St. Clair to the North as shown here by the red line:



Unfortunately the stupidity of people who would not obey the restrictions on transporting firewood across that band made that ineffective....

BTW just to put that map in perspective for you in the UK, Lake Erie is larger than all of Wales in terms of square km....almost 26,000 for Lake Erie, and a little over 20,000 for Wales.

This is a huge problem in many US states and here in Ontario. This beetle kills all species of ash trees (some quicker than others), so it can be devastating to properties where there are a lot of ash trees. Ash is one of those trees that does well in urban environments and has been very resistant to disease and pests, at least until this beetle came along. It's costing billions to treat and remove dead trees....

So far we only have one ash tree on our property that does not have signs of infestation. All the others are either riddled with holes, have major die back of the canopy, or are dead, or already cut down.

Cheers, Al

The red belly is rarely seen - it's usually covered by other feathers on the belly area, but it's there. 😀

Ouch! Don't even want to think of that....

...or nonpayment of loans in Joisey.

Today's yard visitors

Common Redpolls
Purple Finches
Common Goldfinch
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Turkey
Starling
Red-winged Blackbirds
Common Grackles
Black-capped Chickadee
Hairy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Robin
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Dark-eyed Junco
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

no pictures? It never happened! 😁

I was going to say the same thing....

Birds I saw yesterday included a red tailed hawk, and a bald eagle - of course those were both at the wildlife sanctuary we visited to donate a birds cage we don't need any longer...

The hawks are very common here, and the bald eagles are making a comeback.

I did see the usual turkey vultures soaring around here yesterday though!