Finally!

Getting up early was the ticket to getting some decent shots of the downy woodpeckers this morning.  I put out a suet feeder and after the blue jays got done, the downy woodpeckers moved in.  I chose this shot because you can see the strand of saliva running between the adult (on the right) and the juvenile.  I am not certain as to the purpose of the saliva, but have seen this often with adults feeding fledglings.  Maybe someone here knows and can weigh in.  

Another thing I like about this shot is that you can see that the youngster is larger than the parent.  This is because both adults have been busy feeding their babies for about 3 weeks in the nest, and continue to feed them for 2-3 weeks after they fledge.  During the course of caring for the young, both parents lose weight and you'll see that their feathers are very worn and dirty as compared to the fresh plumage of the babies.  I've seen quite a few of the fledglings feeding themselves, so this cycle is just about complete for the year.  What fun these little creatures are to watch.  

In other news ... the wrens in the box by the driveway fledged so I cleaned out the box.  I also made a wren-guard and attached it to the bluebird box since there are now two male house wrens building nests and they won't hesitate to puncture the bluebird eggs and build on top of them.  Unfortunately, Madame is a little put off by the guard, and hasn't yet laid an egg today.  Will have to see what happens tomorrow.  It's a dilemma since the nest is almost guaranteed to fail with out the guard. 

I am posting some additional shots on Flickr of woodpeckers, one of the wrens and an adorable titmouse fledgling. Four starting HERE -  Enjoy!

Happy Thursday, people.

TTFN
Debbi