Tag Archives: Northern Flicker

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Craig Tooley has been out in Nature, training his camera on a beautiful male Northern Flicker.

Northern Flickers are woodpeckers. They are often seen on the ground as they eat ants and beetles. They use their beaks to dig the insects up. Craig's photos shows the orange-red color on the flicker's wings. If you were in the eastern part of the US, the flicker's wings would show yellow. So the flickers here are Red-shafted Northern Flickers. The red feathers on this flicker's face show us he is a male.

To hear the calls of these woodpeckers, here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photos with  you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

It's beautiful here on the Mendonoma Coast today. Sunny, mild with a gentle breeze - nice!

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I love seeing Northern Flickers. I often see them coming to neighbors' springs to get water. Craig Tooley recently photographed a male Flicker.

The red "whiskers" tells us this is a male and is the Red-shafted form of Flickers, the ones found here in the west. Their call is distinctive and you can hear it at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site at this link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds

Northern Flickers use their big beaks to dig in the ground, unearthing ants and beetles, their preferred food.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Another sunny, unseasonably warm day. Really, it's quite lovely but it's just not right for February. But what else can we do but enjoy the warm breezes and bright blue sky?! News flash! Scott and Tree Mercer saw the first NORTH-bound Gray Whale on Monday, Feb. 7th, just about on schedule. The first to head back to the Arctic are the newly pregnant females. They need to get to their feeding grounds as fast as possible. Gray Whales are arriving to the birthing lagoons off Baja California not. So, yes, the grays are coming and going!

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This is the time of year we see fledglings, chicks who have left their nest. Ruth Alexander photographed several Northern Flickers recently, one even perched on her window sill, looking in the window. We think this photo shows a juvenile  male.

Here is a photo by Paul Brewer of an adult, which has red on its cheeks rather than the light color in Ruth's photo.

If you look closely at a flicker's chest feathers, they look like little hearts.

Thanks to Ruth and Paul for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Paul's nature photography, here is his website: http://www.capturingnatureswonders.com/

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Craig Tooley, a frequent contributor to this blog, is curating the exhibit of the North Coast Photographers Group. The grand opening is tomorrow at 5 pm at the Dolphin Gallery in Gualala. Craig says, "The exhibit photos consist primarily of nature photographs taken along the majestic Northern California coast. Don't miss it!"

Here are a few of Craig's photos. I don't know if any of these will be in the exhibit but I thought you'd enjoy seeing them here. Below is a Northern Flicker.

 And here is a very young Fox Kit.

 And here is a House Finch giving you a wave.

Good luck to Craig and the rest of the photography group. They sure have some awesome material to work with here on the Mendonoma Coast.

To see much more of Craig's photography, here's the link: www.ruffimage.com