Juvenile Hairy Woodpecker

[Carma Sue Henry]

For the last week this fellow and his fellow fledglings have been being brought in to learn how to eat at the suet feeder.  It's fun watching the parents teach them.  This one finally got thirsty enough to try one of the bird baths.  We call this one the 'round water' and it's about 1¹/⁴" deep.  The names help us let each other know where to look when we see something interesting.  This youngster hopped around it for a while then made a leap right into the middle and bounced straight back up into the air.  I doubt if he'd ever gotten his rear end all wet before.  I thought he'd take off after that and was surprised when he made it over to the edge, then stayed petched there for a good, long drink.  All I managed to get a video of was the last few seconds.

Some birds seem to develop habitual patterns of eating and drinking and have a path they take to get there.  Of course, it's nearly impossible to tell one wild bird from another but we believe we often see a male HWP who only drinks perched on a log at one side of the bath we call the 'deer water' and a female HWP who only drinks clinging to the edge of the very shallow 'basket water'.  Now I wonder if this fellow will keep returning to this same spot for it's water.

Carma

Logsdon Ridge