As the trees lose their leaves, much of the color remaining at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm is in the berries hanging from branches. As I passed through the entrance to the woods the other day, I noted some big red berries in one tree and thought that would be a great background for a bird photo.
As I walked past those berries this morning, I heard a bird cry out — something similar to a Northern flicker but not quite. I had the Merlin app on, and it lit up with a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
I quickly scanned the trees and found a female sapsucker checking out those red berries, which I’ve since determined are crabapples. The bird munched a bit here, then flew to another nearby branch, a process it repeated twice before it flew deep into the woods.
In the midst of that, I was able to take several shots of the bird feeding. At one point, the bird moved into a small patch of sunlight sneaking through the clouds.
I’ve had few sightings of sapsuckers at the Pole Farm or, for that matter, anywhere. I was grateful to get a minute or so of quality time with this one. 🦅
Another nice shot. I like how the red on its head and color of the berries is almost identical.
Thanks. Neat how that works out in nature.