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Hairy Woodpeckers Like Terrarium Wood!

Here are some pictures from the backyard on Sunday. We've been getting a lot more woodpeckers coming to the tube feeder. That's the one with black oil sunflower seed in it, and I'm honestly surprised at how much they like it. I usually think of woodpeckers as eating suet or hard-packed seed cakes.
The Hairy Woodpecker really likes the terrarium wood Steve put out there for the birds "on deck" to sit on. He originally bought it for our Gold Dust Day Gecko Pololu, but we only had her for about a month- she died last May :-( At least now our backyard "pets" get to enjoy it! I can't imagine that there's anything to eat in there- the wood has been in dry storage in our house- but if the woodpeckers want to peck at it for fun that's ok with me!


I like this picture that captures two of them:

Here's an American Goldfinch really stretching its neck to get in there:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Terrarium Wood...now that is a good use for it!
Cathleen Voss said…
@Andy- At least it's not going to waste! They're still loving it- especially the goldfinches.

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