Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Northern Mockingbird, and a Yellow-throated Warbler

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Red Bellied Woodpecker
This morning was a drizzly morning and I left for work a little later than normal, so I almost decided not to go birding around my office parking lot.  But the rain cleared, and thought perhaps some new birds would come in with the weather.  So I took a little bit of time (only about 25 minutes) to walk around.  I heard many birds, but few wanted to come out and play.  Eventually, I gave myself the "all birds are equal" speech, and I resigned myself to photographing the birds I normally don't pay much attention to.  I did see a Red-bellied Woodpecker that perched itself on a light post and proceeded to drum on it like it was a tree--first time I've seen that.

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Northern Mockingbird
Later I saw a Northern Mockingbird fly down and grab a tasty morsel.  He then found a concrete perch and proceeded to cut it into pieces, and then it flew off.  I wonder if it was preparing to feed its young.

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Northern Mockingbird
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Northern Mockingbird
I did have one sighting I was proud of;  I found a Yellow-throated Warbler, and that would have been the highlight of my morning if he would have come anywhere near me.  He was high in a tree, and he rarely showed himself.  I took perhaps 100 pictures of him hoping to catch him in the open.  I did get one terribly cluttered photo of him, and I normally wouldn't even show this, but I guess I'm in the mood to let you see one of my awful photos that I worked very hard to get.

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Yellow-throated Warbler
I also saw two Killdeer flyovers, so that raised my total in this patch to 64 species.  Here's a list of the 17 species I saw/heard this morning.

Mallard x Mottled Duck (hybrid) 4
Common Gallinule 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 3
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
Cedar Waxwing 50
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 1

Comments

  1. Cool observation with the mockingbird, you are probably right.

    Woodpeckers often drum simply to make noise to stake out their territory, so metal works just as well (or better) than a tree. Ive noticed that bigger woodpeckers are particularly fond of light poles, electrical boxes, etc.

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  2. Steve, thanks for the info.  That's great to know.  I guess he's pretty bright.

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