Northern Flicker

14 July

A new visitor to the garden this year, a bit late, was this female yellow-shafted Northern Flicker who arrived for a brief drink. Flickers are woodpeckers, but they don’t do much wood pecking as their primary source of food is ants and beetles which they find on the ground. They are notable for their extreme sensitivity to disturbance and will fly away as soon as you appear on the horizon.

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This bird is singing around a suburban garden, but it could as easily have been seen and enjoyed in a nearby park a school playing field, along a residential street or in a quiet cemetery. Nature is right here - despite all that our world does to push it away and pave it over, a lot of life somehow hangs on as our neighbours. Unlike some Substacks, I don’t seek payment for these guided walks, and never will. If you enjoy these topics perhaps I might ask you to share them sometimes with your friends and on your social networks? That would be nice, thank you.

… and while you are here, let me introduce myself. If you haven’t visited my “about” page, here is a link. It’s good to know who you are dealing with.