Amazing pictures and beautiful dogs

I think I've seen that woodpecker around here?

I’m so happy to see your doggies!!!!
They look so proud to be with you!!!

Great woodpecker photos! I've been waiting to see one again so I can pay more attention to beak size, etc.

Very nice pics of Rondeau

What beautiful photos and sweet doggies!

Thank you Anek

Thank you Gandhalfit

Both Hairies and Downies are North American woodpeckers. They aren't known to exist in the wild anyplace else, as far as I know.

DorothyMH Trudy and Shelby love their adventures in Rondeau! Usually we just do 3K when we walk in town, and just over 6K when we walk in Rondeau. So yesterday's hike was a big one for them. Trudy really enjoys birding--if I stop moving to observe a bird, she is happy to sit down beside me and take a little break. Shelby, on the other hand, gets frustrated by my interest in birds. She is perpetually convinced that whatever is up ahead is ever so much more interesting than wherever we are currently at. Still, she is happy to come along. There are many interesting smells in Rondeau. And sometimes we see deer. Shelby is especially excited by the deer!

Whirly I would love to see more woodpecker photos from your area, if you are able to get them! It would be interesting to see if the subtle field marks I'm used to looking for are consistent halfway across the continent.

Thank you CaptainCanuck sunpetal

Cool pictures and cute hiking companions ❤

Thank you CODawn !

Hairy woodpeckers look quite like British greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers. Beatiful pictures as ever, RD!

Thank you Colin

It is interesting to me that so many woodpeckers have such similar colouration even across far flung places. Meanwhile there are also woodpeckers with quite different colour patterns such as your Eurasian Green Woodpecker and our Northern Flicker, living alongside the more common black and white with red birds. Northern Flickers even display some variation in colour patterns within their own species, depending on which side of the continent they are from!

Gandhalfit I think the woodpecker you are thinking of may be the Syrian Woodpecker which is also of the black & white with red accents colouration.

Sunday, January 24 - Rainbow's Consecutive Days of Fitness Day 277


running: 5K in 29:27 - Rondeau Road & Harrison Trail


Workout with my mother: Day 311

Posture x 3
Fireheart - Day 28
Knee Saver (with dragon adds + mods)
Sore Feet x 2
Wrist Pain
Hand Tendons x 2

Total time for w/o w. mother: 59:05

Total workout time: 88 minutes


Other stuff:

6 km hiking

Only Homemade Food - ​​ - Total Days: 390/390
No Video Games - ​ - Total Consecutive Days: 409
No Seated English Television - - Total Consecutive Days: 328
Daily French Study - - Total Consective Days: 76
GOBOT (6:30) - - 1/1
GBOT (11:00) - - 1/1


Year 51 Goals Tracking:

1. 40/1000 km running
2. 107.2/3000 km total distance
3. 42 min. / 100 hours yoga/dance
4. fastest 5K year-to-date: 28:30 (goal is < 22)
5. most push-ups in one set: 10/50
6. press-to-handstand progress: successful "puppy press" from left leg on chair and feeling much more stable entering handstand this way than in the past (puppy press from right leg on the chair was still not quite there, which may have simply been a case of being tired by that point--usually pushing off my right leg is easier for me) (goal = 1 unassisted)
7. 1/15 chapters Bird Bio course
8. 0/100 nature journal entries with sketches
9. 10/100 complete bird counts
10. bird species IDed by ear: 5/100
11. Fluenz French: 17/150 sessions
12. French tests: TBD
13. pull-up progress: 8 second unassisted negative (goal = 1 unassisted)