Blue Rabbit and Red Woodpeckers

Design - "Small Blue Motif 1" (freebie)

Designer - Windy Willows

Fabric - 32 count cream linen

Fibers - DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 23 April 2015

Completed - 23 April 2015

While enjoying a sunny, albeit windy afternoon outside with the cats, I stitched this little rabbit.  It reminds me of a small Delft tile.

This has been a busy week for woodpeckers.

The male Red-Shafted Northern Flickers are very territorial now. Lots of drumming and hammering and strutting. 

Often there are two males vying for the attention of a single female.

Mostly the females would just like to be left alone...

...to eat in peace!

I do have one interesting female Flicker - see the yellow on the underside  of her tail feathers?

Here's a better photo. I think she is a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker - far more common east of the Rockies. The folks at bird store think she might be an intergrade - which is a hybrid of the two types. 

This male Flicker probably is an intergrade. He has red shafts, but also has a red stripe on the nape of his neck which is a characteristic of yellow-shafted flickers.  

Occasionally a Red-breasted Sapsucker flits by.

It's hard to top the brilliant red of their heads.

I was most excited though to see a female Downy Woodpecker, even though she does not sport any red feathers!  I haven't had much Downy Action this winter and am hoping for more frequent sightings this spring.

I see Jays and Starlings at the peanut feeders are more frequently than the Acorn Woodpeckers. 

And instead of groups of three and four, I am luck to have two birds at the same time - far more often it is a 'singleton'.