Some birds and Things

The cardinals have been where ever cardinals go in the winter. Last year there was 3 pair that hung around here. So far I have only seen 1 pair this year. I put out some sunflower seeds for them and got some decent photos of the both the male and female. It is easy to tell the difference in the cardinals but my book says the male and female red-headed woodpecker look the same so I haven't figured out if I have one woodpecker coming in or more than one. Anyway the woodpecker seems to be fond of something he or she is digging out of the ground in my front yard.

 Red-headed woodpecker

The squirrel has come in for a share of the sunflower seeds.

The daffodils are looking good at the abandoned house down the road from us.

It was very late and I had to zoom all the way to see this pair of does out back of our place.

Turkeys

We took a drive the other evening just before dark, down by the fields where soy beans are planted each year. Usually we can see a couple of deer about that time. This time we saw a huge flock of turkeys. We had seen a few, maybe about 5 or so near our house last year but hadn't seen any since last summer. We were amazed at the large number we saw less than a mile from our house. We estimated about 30 in on flock. When they went into the trees where we couldn't see them we left that spot and drove to another and there was about 20 there. Most of them looked like they were hens but we could see a few that looked like gobblers. They were out in the open fields and looked like they were feeding on something. Apparently there is not any kind of predator around here like coyotes or something that could take down a grown bird. They would be too big for the few hawks I have seen. We enjoyed seeing them and getting a few photos. They were weary enough that without a good zoom I wouldn't have got any photos and none of them are really that great.