Thanksgiving Surprise

I just got back from my Thanksgiving ride with Ellen--and a wonderful one it was.  After a quick lunch, I thought I would make some cookies to bring to Kevin's for the feast.  As I was gathering the ingredients, Thunder called me into the dining room.  I looked out the window and saw a half a dozen robins digging around in the oak leaves on the ground.  That was neat.  I like robins.

Soon, there were at least a dozen robins.  They were hard to count because they were moving around so much.  I decided to watch from the kitchen so I could continue mixing the cookie dough.

Much to my glee, a blue jay joined the action.  I love blue jays.  More robins showed up and they started wandering closer and closer to the house.  A couple juncos hopped into the feeder.  I had put a little bread in it in the morning.  Then, there were more juncos, some tufted titmouse's and nuthatches.  The nuthatches were crawling on the tree trunks. 

Then and red-bellied woodpecker visited the bird feeder.  That has happened before, but it is still a treat for me to see them.  I love red-bellied woodpeckers.

As I was staring at him, a couple more blue jays appeared and more robins.  I tried to count--there were more than 20.  The juncos seemed to have multiplied and now there seemed to be nuthatches all over the place.

Some of the birds were moving around so fast that I couldn't tell what they were.

I glanced over to the bulb garden, and there was a bright red cardinal poking around.  I love cardinals.  I looked back to the bird feeder--and there was a pilliated woodpecker on the post!  A first in the land of Daly.  They are rare around hear, and I have never seen one close to the house.  I could barely take my eyes off him--when I noticed another good sized woodpecker of some sort walking up a truck--that I have never seen before.  I could only see his back, so I have no clue what it was.

The pilliated woodpecker flew over to a tree trunk and pecked around for a while until he disappeared.  The robins slowly traveled away in search of more food, elsewhere, and soon we were alone, again.  For about 10 minutes, I got to watch the most spectacular bird show I have ever seen in my yard.  It was a wonderful surprise.