Flicker Day

Sunday was Re-bellied Woodpecker day at the Brooks Estate (see previous post), and Monday was Northern Flicker day. When I was watching the RBWO's on Sunday I noticed the flickers also going to a nest cavity, but the light was really bad, so I didn't get any photos of them. I went back after work yesterday and had some better light so I took a few photos and then moved on.


In case you didn't know, woodpecker nestlings (and in fact the nestling of many cavity nesters) excrete in tidy little bags called fecal sacs. This helps keep the home tidy, as there isn't a lot of excrement building up in the cavity with the chicks - the parents just take out the garbage after dropping off some food and drop it elsewhere. This is exactly what is happening in the photo below.

I've been trying forever to get a photo of a flicker with it's wings spread to show the beautiful golden linings. So far this is the best one - too bad it's so blurry. The light was very filtered and I was using a pretty low shutter speed (1/100 sec). Someday I'll get that shot!
I also managed to get out yesterday on m lunch break for a bit. Not too much in the way of birds (Yellow warblers everywhere, a few Blue-winged Warblers, and Willow Flyactchers, but none of them wanted to come out for photos.) I did come to a bush that was attracting dragonflies. I don't know much about them, but I do find them fascinating and need to learn more.

These are probably pretty common, but like I said, I don't know much about them. If anybody out there knows dragonflies, I'd love some help on identifying the following two:

I'm not sure the photo does this next one justice - he was a beautiful green with rustThis one I am pretty confident is en Ebony Jewelwing. I got this shot off just as he was taking off...