Wind-blown Birds

Though the sun was shining today, the winds remained awful and the temperatures stayed well below freezing.  I did not feel like venturing far from home--yes, I wimped out, but this extreme wind has gotten way old--so I spent some time watching a male northern flicker who stayed around one of the cottonwood trees out front for the better part of the day. 

I couldn't help feeling sorry for him with his wind-blown and rumpled feathers.  When he wasn't feeding on suet or bugs, he scooted up the cottonwood and rested on the leeward side, which still had a stiff enough breeze to keep his feathers in a mess.  I wondered if he would have trouble getting them all back in order and how it would affect his flying ability.

Also sharing the same cottonwood today was a white-breasted nuthatch, who managed to keep his feathers in a little better order.  Less surface area, perhaps.  He seemed hungry, too, and it was interesting to watch the way he seemed to take turns with the flicker on the lower part of the tree near the suet.  (A previous resident found it necessary to bang a large nail into the side of this cottonwood.  While I would never treat a living tree in this manner, the cottonwood seems to be doing okay.  I have recently hung a suet feeder from the nail, which is a good nine feet from the ground, and have now seen these birds visiting much more often.)

The house sparrows, mountain chickadees, and house finches all seemed to be trying to stay low in the shrubberies and avoid as much of the wind as possible as they fed.  They preferred pecking the fallen seed off the ground to flying up to the feeders.  A brown creeper tried the suet, but soon abandoned the area (for a more sheltered spot, I hope).  The only birds that didn't seem to mind the weather were the crows.  A bunch of them played in the street this afternoon once enough cars had driven by to melt some of the snow and ice.  I guess that's fresh drinking water on a day like this.