The following is an article written by Jeanne Jackson for her blog Mendonoma Sightings where she documents the wildlife, the land, and the waters of our coast.
Craig Tooley has been out in Nature, training his camera on a beautiful male Northern Flicker.
Northern Flickers are woodpeckers. They are often seen on the ground as they eat ants and beetles. They use their beaks to dig the insects up. Craig’s photos show the orange-red color on the flicker’s wings. If you were in the eastern part of the US, the flicker’s wings would show yellow. So the flickers here are Red-shafted Northern Flickers. The red feathers on this flicker’s face show us he is a male.
To hear the calls of these woodpeckers, here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds
Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Craig’s nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com
It’s beautiful here on the Mendonoma Coast today. Sunny, mild with a gentle breeze – nice!
How Can You Support the Efforts of Mendonoma Sightings?
- Buy Jeanne Jackson’s book Mendonoma Sightings Throughout the Year here. The 270-page, full-color documentation of our coast’s beauty would make for a great gift or coffee table conversation piece.
- Jeanne Jackson has also written two children’s books: Sunny Loves Spring on the California Coast and Sunny Loves Summer on the California Coast. These playful children’s books were written to instill within children a love of nature. Jackson will be publishing the other two seasons this year. Those books can be purchased at http://sunnylovesnature.com/
- Check out Craig Tooley’s incredible photography of our coastline here. Buy some prints of his photos, get them framed, and bring the Mendonoma coast home.
- “Follow” and “Like” the Mendonoma Sightings Throughout the Year Facebook page for direct access to Jackson’s dispatches of life on Mendonoma.
- If you have your own Mendonoma Sighting, contact Jeanne Jackson at mendonomasightings@gmail.com to submit your narrative and photograph so she can document the experience.
You forgot to add how important the flicker is to us Native Americans here in northern california…
Beautiful bird. Thanks for the pics.