Acorn Woodpeckers taking over my yard: Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low. I'm appending this with...

therwol Loc: USA

Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low.

I'm appending this with examples of the woodpeckers divebombing a squirrel at a feeder. Nothing special, but I've never seen this behavior.

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joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

therwol wrote:

Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low.

I'm appending this with examples of the woodpeckers divebombing a squirrel at a feeder. Nothing special, but I've never seen this behavior.

Cool introduction to them for me, and I thank you

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I find they like peanuts in the shell, of course so do the Jays, Crows, Ravens and Squirrels.

therwol Loc: USA

robertjerl wrote:

I find they like peanuts in the shell, of course so do the Jays, Crows, Ravens and Squirrels.

We put out peanuts along with black oil sunflower seeds (Home Depot and Walmart sell 40 pound bags.) The birds get most of the peanuts very quickly. The woodpeckers are the only small birds that aggressively go after the squirrels to move them away from the food. The jays just sneak in and out and fly off with the peanuts. We have squirrels and turkeys going at each other over the food. We have a couple of feeders on the ground.

Some of these pictures aren't my best, but I posted them anyway.

jdtonkinson Loc: Red Wing, MN

Acorns are goofy to watch. They often dive at other birds

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

jdtonkinson wrote:

Acorns are goofy to watch. They often dive at other birds

The reason you are seeing several is they live in family groups of the off spring of a female and their mates.
And their Granary trees where they store nuts can be awesome. They may use the same one for years and it will end up with thousands of holes they peck and stuff with acorns or other nuts. I read in one of the nature magazines about an old wooden building a family of Acorn Woodpeckers used instead of a tree. They went to demolish the building and collected hundreds of pounds of nuts from the old beams and walls.

Though at the time I didn't know what it was, the first one I ever saw was pecking a hole in a power pole in the middle of Riverside, CA. I pulled to a stop and heard it hammering away, looked out my driver's window and there it was about 20 feet up a power pole on the corner.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Some nice images. I also like your "Green Man" of medieval folklore fame birdfeeder.

therwol Loc: USA

robertjerl wrote:

The reason you are seeing several is they live in ... (show quote)

Interesting you should mention about how they store acorns and nuts. Last year, a couple of my downspouts were blocked. I cleaned out hundreds of acorns. I should mention that I live in an area that has a canopy of oak trees. The acorns blanket the ground and my driveway every year when they drop, and I have to get rid of them, or as many of them as possible before they germinate and produce little oak trees everywhere. They're hard to pull out of the ground.

therwol Loc: USA

RodeoMan wrote:

Some nice images. I also like your "Green Man" of medieval folklore fame birdfeeder.

We have a nickname for the "Green Man" bird feeder. We call him Ron Moody. Ron Moody played Fagan in the movie "Oliver", and his face was made up in such a way that there is a resemblance.

We bought it on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PY7CJ4T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We're going to order a few more. The birds have pecked holes in the sides, and a lot of seeds spill out of them.

I see a potential for better images if I spend more time out there after feeding. This was a spur of the moment thing.

Sinewsworn Loc: Port Orchard, WA

therwol wrote:

Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low.

I'm appending this with examples of the woodpeckers divebombing a squirrel at a feeder. Nothing special, but I've never seen this behavior.

Great set!

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

therwol wrote:

Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low.

I'm appending this with examples of the woodpeckers divebombing a squirrel at a feeder. Nothing special, but I've never seen this behavior.

Great set!!!

tcthome Loc: NJ

Laws of nature I guess!

taffspride Loc: Originally Wales, now the Sunshine State

therwol wrote:

Taken in my front yard yesterday. They attack my squirrels over food. Sorry for the blurry one. Shutter speed too low.

I'm appending this with examples of the woodpeckers divebombing a squirrel at a feeder. Nothing special, but I've never seen this behavior.

Great set. Love that first shot,

Iechyd da

Ann

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Nice set. I'll take the birds over the squirrels any day.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Nicely shot set. Acorns tend to be noisy but they sure are pretty