Today was a Woodpecker day...

Here's a Rose-Breasted (otherwise known as a red-bellied) Woodpecker on the feeder outside my dining room window. He measures around 9-10.5" or so.

This one below is smaller at around 6-7", and she's a Downy Woodpecker.

And a portrait of the Rose-Breasted Woodpecker - don't ask me why they are named rose-breasted when most of the red/rose is on top of their heads and maybe a twinge near the beak! The books say their underbellies have a 'red wash' of color but I've never seen any pink, but then again they fly off rather quickly and what one usually sees is their bright red crown and prominent black and white markings.

Another up close and personal portrait of my Rose-Breasted buddy. Notice the long beak - all the better to ferret out insects from wherever they might be hiding. In this case, it just happens to have suet on it! Also notice the foot - well adapted to tree walking, of course.


Can you tell I'm an avid bird-watcher??? Several of you have asked about my camera - it's a Panasonic Lumix digital with a 12x optical zoom that can be used manually or not. I choose not since the automatic feature does a fantastic job, as you can see. I shoot my photos at a fairly large size - these measured 13x18" before cropping and resizing to 4.5 x 6 jpegs. I generally save the best ones as full-sized tif files because that saves all data where jpegs loose data with every change. If I sound like I really know what I'm talking about, I don't. I just read Quiltart and keep a folder on all the digital camera hints!

Alyssa's quilt is now fully quilted and the binding is pinned on and ready to sew. Maybe I'll finish it tomorrow... Once it's done, I'll post photos of that, too. I think...