Snowmen and Woodpeckers

Design - "Snowmen"

Designer - Val's Stitchin' Stuff

Magazine - "Just Cross Stitch" - October 2006

Fabric - 32 count Moss Green Belfast

Fibers - Thread Gatherer & WDW - one strand over two threads 

Started - 1 December 2010

Completed - 4 December 2010

I was pleased and relieved to see my woodpeckers during the recent winter weather.   

Here's the female Hairy Woodpecker.

She's sideways on the red feeder on the left, while the male is on the right on the green stand.

Here he is...

...and here she is.

I went through bird food like crazy - the peanuts and suet were in high demand.

Here's another one of peanut eaters. 

The male and female Acorn Woodpeckers both came by!

It's rare to see them together.

In fact I'd not seen her for several days, and was starting to get worried.

The guy is much better at coming by daily.

I did have a couple of Flickers too. 

Only managed to get photos of the female.

The Red-breasted Sapsucker is the bird that surprised me.  

Every morning, no matter how cold, no matter the weather, I could hear this bird thunking away on his sap wells on l large second growth Douglas fir tree.

Here are the wells. 

Two neat columns of holes.

Notice that even if temperatures down in the 'teens, the wells continued to emit sap and not freeze. See the beads of sap?  Scientists are interested in how these wells continue to run in very cold weather.  

The Anna's Hummingbirds are supposed to drink from these in the winter, an interesting synergy in the avian world.