With the temperature in the 50’s F, love was in the air. The male pileated woodpecker was sticking close to his mate and in the picture was next to her thrusting his beak up over and over. It is mating season.
Pileated woodpecker pair
The bald eagle is getting to know the program here. Two days ago he swung by grabbing talon-fulls of ham fat three times in eleven minutes, but still leaving a piece for a crow to scavenge. Today he or she came by when my camera was set wrong, kind of catching the action but not with pictures a person would really want to see. Calling the eagle he for now rather than it, he took a piece of ham fat up in a red pine where the only spot with sunlight was on his feet and bill.
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 Crow |
 Herring gull |
The nice red fox male made a few trips, taking blueberry muffins and chicken leg bones with some meat on them.
A surprise visitor two days ago was an early arriving herring gull that suddenly was sitting as he is in the picture and not flinching when I went out the door and put bologna and chicken pieces within a couple feet of him. He remembers and knows the program. I used to hand-feed some of the gulls but quit doing that when they made mistakes and grabbed fingers too often. What made his visit a surprise was that the first gull in each of the last seven years had all been between March 20 and April 12.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center