Creeper Camouflage

This afternoon while sitting in a hunting blind near my bird feeders I spotted a small and very well camouflaged Brown Creeper working his way up a nearby tree looking for food. I got a photo (left; click on it for a closer look) which shows very well just how hard they can be to see when the are up next to tree bark. The creepers are hard to detect also because their calls are generally hard to hear due to how high pitched and quiet they are. The Brown Creeper spends most of it's life attached to the bark of trees, not only while feeding but while nesting as well-they put their nest behind a loose piece of bark on a tree. Although small this is one impressive bird and one of my favorite.

On the opposite end of the spectrum a large, easy to see, and not very well camouflaged Blue Jay came by as well. The picture below is the first really nice Blue Jay shot I have taken because they are so easily spooked. Unfortunately there was no sign of the titmouse which I saw the morning before:(

Creeping Creepers

This morning while I was out in my yard I came across a Brown Creeper. This is the first one I've seen so far this year. This past winter creepers were very scarce and I only saw one and it was not in my yard. In most years I have a couple that come to my feeders almost everyday during the winter but none were there this year. These are one of my favorite birds so hopefully I have some more that show up next year.