When I got home from work at approx. 4 p.m. on Sunday, I noticed a ball of fluff about 3 feet from the ground on the trunk of the hemlock tree by my driveway, where my suet feeder is located.  I recognized the ball of fluff as a male Hairy Woodpecker, all puffed up, with his head turned backwards and his bill tucked into his feathers.  To my surprise, he didn't fly off when I approached him.  I probably could have picked him up, but I didn't.  He woke up, "peeked" once and climbed up another 3 feet, still not flying away.  I went into the house and came back out to take my dog for a walk.  He still didn't move.  When we got back from our walk about 10 minutes later, the hairy was chowing down on the suet.  After we went into the house, he flew back up to the trunk, puffed up and stayed there for a little while.  Then back to chowing down on the suet, then he flew off.  My guess is that he was very cold and needed to fuel up for the
 night...

I hardly get any birds at my feeders since my neighbors up the road started feeding the birds, but it's nice to know one was needed :-).

Lynn
Plainfield, NH


      

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