Crestwood Village 1/23--Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

It has been bitterly cold the last couple of days and the 8 or so inches of snow we had on Tuesday hasn't gone anywhere, so my birding opportunities have been pretty much through the window. But this morning Shari wanted to finally try out the snowshoes she bought a couple of years ago to celebrate our move to the country. We actually haven't had snow on the ground for any extended periods, so today she took advantage. I went along in my boots. I also have snowshoes, but they seemed to me like more trouble than they're worth. We're not exactly living in Alaska here.

Still, it was good to get outside, even if the temperature was only about 14 degrees. You people in the mid-west and New England can stop smirking now; in New Jersey that's cold. We walked along the trail that separates the Crestwood Village from the WMA. The snow was thick, but powdery and dry, so she made her way pretty easily.

And there were a few birds to be found. At a suet feeder 5 or so houses down from here we found two Pine Warblers actively feeding--one a female, the other a bright male. I haven't seen the female that was in our yard for a couple of weeks, so I'm wondering if she's moved locations. I did see this morning the male that regularly comes to eat peanut butter off a pine cone in our yard, so I suspect we have at least 3 PIWA in the neighborhood. Pretty good for a winter rarity.

In a bare tree, climbing up a diagonal branch Shari spotted a bird. Without her binoculars (as you can see from the pictures, her hands weren't free) it fell to me to identify it as our first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the year.

I remember a few years ago chatting with a vendor and we got onto hobbies and when he found out that mine was birding he, said, as so many others have said to me and my fellow birders, "Oh yeah, have you seen a Yellow-BELLIED SAP-SUCKER?" And I replied, "Of course," which surprised him, since he didn't really think the bird existed.

Then I said, "Listen, there are birds with a lot funnier names than that," and the first one that sprang to mind was Blue-footed Booby, which seemed to fulfill the suggestive quality that sapsucker has. But other names occur with a few moments of thought, like Magnificent Frigatebird, Variegated Fairywren, and Laughing Kookaburra (the last 2 from Australia).

Hey kids! Send in your funniest bird name. No prizes, but I will list them in a future entry if I get enough responses.