there were several fledgling downy woodpeckers - they were so cute trying to figure out how to land on the suet feeder which hangs from a tall metal pole with a squirrel baffle. One had no trouble at all, the other... well it was pretty sweet and amusing to watch. The second fledgling would land sideways on the pole beneath the baffle where it couldn't get to the feeder, then it would land on the top but was afraid to make the leap to the feeder from above. It pecked at the metal pole rather timidly, of course yielding no results. Finally it followed its sibling and made the leap to the feeder, the parent watching all of this from a nearby tree.
This is a photo of a hairy woodpecker from last summer, I don't have a photo of downy in my personal collection but it is very similar but quite a bit smaller.
anyway, my mother never tired of hearing about what the birds were doing in our backyard here in New Hampshire and often had bird stories of her own to share from her own yard in Wisconsin or from her many travels all over the country.
