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Ominous bird valentines.

Here's this year's intergrade Northern Flicker chart! A few old faces still hanging around from past years, which is always a treat, but I've got some real weird newbies, too. "Yellow" there even has his own nickname in my head because he stands out so much.

For those who missed past years' posts: I live in the intergrade zone for Northern Flickers and usually get a bunch of them in my yard every winter. Probably every 5 out of 6 flickers at my suet feeder is an intergrade - it's a really unusually high rate! Since each one has a unique head pattern, I keep track of individuals and enjoy drawing portraits for them every year.

Most Northern Flickers are either red-shafted (primarily western) or yellow-shafted (primarily eastern). Each of these two groups comes with a predictable head pattern and underwing color. The intergrades shuffle all of those pieces and recombine them!

We planted a Serviceberry because I love Cedar Waxwings and they never visit feeders but will go bonkers for Serviceberries. With the Maxdone cameras being so small and light, I tried an idea and put one in the tree. This was more of an experiment but I got some fun footage with Robins and Grosbeaks (and one Blue Jay).

Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana), gettin puffy and fluffy, family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes, Costa Rica

Trick or treat

Chicken feet

Sometimes I just love watching birds and listening to them sing. They're funny, sometimes goofy, and very lively. Not so long ago, my friend gave me a modest set of art supplies, and I decided to try them out on these simple sketches.