Brunch

Perched on a fence at the side of our house, a flicker was munching on some late harvest grapes. The fall colours really make this picture, I think; the flickers have really been enjoying our neighbourhood lately and I'm not sure why. Flickers are common in this valley, and are related to woodpeckers, so they have hearty, thick beaks and can be heard hammering away on telephone poles and thick tree trunks throughout the summer. When they are in flight they have a distinctive wing-flap/swoop pattern, and the underside of their wings display a splash of rusty red.