Here is the species that started everything for Roger Tory Peterson – the Northern Flicker. It and all birds came to represent to Roger all the freedom, beauty and vitality of the natural world. This Northern Flicker is a male as you can see by the black mustache. The bird is feeding on the ground, as many flickers do, searching for ants, beetles and other insect life. This winter is a good example of how a warmer than usual stretch of weather can impact a certain species as these strongly migratory birds might not have to fly so far to find uncovered, unfrozen earth. Climate change may end up making things a bit easier for them in this very narrow view. However, when the cold and snowy weather comes back to Chautauqua County with a vengeance, as it has thanks to some polar air and the Lake Erie snow machine, the Northern Flickers that Roger loved so dearly have to find the trees again. You may see the brilliant flash of gold in their wings when a bird lands at your suet feeders!
