Walnut Woods SP

Yesterday I had to go in to work for a meeting, so I stopped by the bird blind at Walnut Woods on my way.  The birds were busy, taking turns at the feeders and chasing each other.  The Northern Cardinals are definitely feeling frisky.  There were many males singing and squabbling over the females.  At one point I counted 7 males sitting in a single bush (which isn't hard when there are no leaves to hide them)!  Speaking of cardinals, Cornell posted an article this week about why male cardinals are so red.

Here, a female picks among the fallen seeds with a White-throated Sparrow.

A few other birds I spotted:

A Tufted Titmouse gleans a peanut out of the feeder.

 A Red-bellied Woodpecker takes its turn.  These birds do actually have red on their belly, but you don't usually see it (unless you're banding one, in which case you take a photo because how often to you get to see their belly?).

 This photo is a great comparison of a Downy (right) and Hairy (left) Woodpecker.  Although they are very similarly marked, Hairy Woodpeckers are larger and have a larger beak to head size ratio.  I kept hoping the Hairy would actually show its beak for a photo but the feeder was just too interesting.