Red-head Monday

Common Crossbill male

Today seems to have developed a theme all on it's own.  It all started at the bus stop with the return of the Common Crossbill, while I was on my way for groceries. I had turned on my camera to catch a photo of a Raven carrying nesting material.  The neighborhood Ravens have been doing so for several days now, flying overhead each and every time I need to catch the bus.  When I looked up, after adjusting the settings on my camera, there was a little red-head peaking out at me from a pine tree like bush.  As you can imagine, I took several dozen photos of both the male and female.

Pileated Woodpecker male

After returning from my grocery shopping and lunch, I decided to head out again.  This time I went to the little forest down the street.  The first bird I saw was a Pileated Woodpecker, who was behaving rather oddly.  It turned out to be a male.  He wasn't pecking away at the trunk of the tree he clung too, he was too busy looking around.  A half hour later I figured out why.  There were two Pileated Woodpeckers in the little wood.  I believe love is in the air for these two.  The male kept trying to get closer to the female, but she was giving him a merry chase.  At one point they were three feet apart on two different tree trunks, but I just couldn't get an image of the two together. 

Common Redpoll

While I was observing the male Pileated's odd behavior, I also spotted a pair of Common Redpolls, another red-head.  The photos I got aren't very clear, as there was a lot of bush and branches in the way but I did get one in which the bird  is at least clearly recognizable.

Enjoy,
Susan