Okay, I'm going to post some pictures but you have to promise to keep telling me how awesome I am in the March thread!
I'll admit, I usually post to the butterfly thread first because I generally have more and better photos to share. But I'm so excited, I came here first!
Now, it started out not so exciting. I was checking out the property behind my house. Our neighbor died two years ago, and last summer his 9 acres sold. He basically owned everything behind the north side of the cul-de-sac I live on. All the neighbors were afraid developers would come in and build 9 houses. But this weekend, they had an open house and there's a "Property for Rent" sign. Renters aren't my first choice, but it's way better than developers. Did I mention over three acres is wetlands? Anyway, I've been roaming that property for years collecting caterpillars and food for said caterpillars and my neighbor never cared. In preparation for renters, though, mowers came in and they just scalped (nearly) everything! So I was mostly wandering around to see if there were any good host plants left.
As I was walking, I saw a group of five crows. One was sitting on a wood pile my dad and brother made. That used to be a pine tree but it got struck by lightning and had been dead for years. The Red-Shouldered Hawks liked to sit in it a lot. But a couple of months ago, about half of it came crashing down so my brother chopped the rest down with an ax (he has anger issues) and then Dad helped stack it. The tree technically isn't on our property, but Dad always helped along our property line because we had a nice neighbor. One of the crows was sitting on top of the pile like King Crow. You can see another Crow on the ground under the dying palmetto frond in the right lower corner.
This Crow was picking stuff out of the leaf litter.
One Crow went up into the tree. I think it's flashing me in the second pic.
As I was walking closer to the Crows, I saw another bird go flying from tree to tree. It was fairly large and I could see it had white on the underside of the wings so not a Crow. I ended up accidentally scaring it when I walked around a tree and then I got a good look at it. It was a Pileated Woodpecker! My first!!!
First off, why didn't you guys tell me they were so big?
I guess it's one of those things you have to see for yourself. I just didn't expect it to be that big! It was pecking away quite hard at an oak tree. Chunks of bark were flying off which my field guide says is typical. Also, I can see this is a male because of the red stripe on the cheek.
So I'm in the middle of trying to get good shots for you guys when a much smaller bird lands on a limb in the tree. I glance over and take a few quick shots. I thought I knew what it was, but I wanted to see my pics to be sure. A Red-Bellied Woodpecker! Is it Woodpecker Day?
The lighting was really bad over here because I was in deep shade so I'm surprised you can even see these pics. I just took the three.
I played a little more "Stalk the Pileated" but the bugs were in my face and I think swinging your arms frantically about is a good way to scare birds. In that first picture, he's on a utility pole.
And in important news, I looked over the fence and saw one of the neighbors has a hummingbird feeder. I couldn't tell if it had anything in it, though. Of course, I get the hummingbirds just by planting the right plants. Makes it tougher to get photos, but I like to make them earn their supper.
,..lovely to see the Jay.
Just the downy and red-bellied, who should really be called red-headed. 
