Certhia americana – the brown creeper – may be a familiar visitor to your garden or your feeder, but I’ve never observed one until today. We get the usual crowd any given day feasting on the suet I provide in the winter: woodpeckers – downies, hairies and red-breasted (females), white-breasted nuthatch, northern flicker (mostly females), tufted titmouse, and black-capped chickadees. The contingent of lawn feeding birds is even more extensive.
It was hard to see at first since it blends so well with the bark of the white oak, but once it started moving in its distinct repeated pattern of flying to the bottom of the tree and creeping up the trunk, there was no question I had a new visitor.
While I am on the subject of birds – The Cornell lab of Ornithology provides a useful resource on the web: All About Birds.
Keep your eye to the sky
Growing up, my Mother always had numerous bird feeders around the yard. I remember how much I loved sitting and watching all of the birds coming and going. thank you for reminding me of this!
Now I love to teach my children to look up and notice the birds.