At first light the first woodpecker comes. And then the female pheasant. With or without her fat comic mate. Feeding under the feeders. I always overfill and scatter nuts and seed around for ground-feeding birds. Crush a few more fat balls to be sure.
They are a pair, the woodpeckers, the exhilarating flash of scarlet, of black and white wing. Comfortable hanging from the feeders at any angle. Furious beaks battering the seed. Happy to share with smaller birds just not with each other at the same time.
