I sure do miss this woodpecker and its mate. I photographed them for parts of two breeding seasons in Clark County, Idaho but about a month ago some idiot chopped down their nest tree (the one in these images) and I haven’t seen the birds since.
I’ve returned home from my Montana/Idaho camping trip and overall the trip was spectacular but the good times were tempered by a nasty surprise on my first day there.
Northern Flickers tend to use existing nest cavities (rather than excavating new ones) more often than other woodpecker species and this bird followed that pattern.
A whole host of cavity nesting bird species rely on dead and dying trees for their nest holes but when those “snags” are prematurely removed by man the resource disappears and birds suffer.
The Williamson’s Sapsuckers I photographed earlier this summer had a routine while they were feeding their chicks and I presume it went on all day long. And often a feisty pair of wrens made that routine more complicated.
Please do not pin my images on Pinterest, Tumblr or any other pinning site or social media or use them for anything else without my express permission (and that includes using them as models for paintings, drawings or tattoos etc.).