Northern Flicker

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A couple of times each winter, I see a Northern Flicker (woodpecker) in the yard adjacent to mine.  That yard is on a neighborhood street corner and had most of the trees removed years ago.  So, it's forest fringe whereas my yard is total forest.  I saw a Northern Flicker on Sunday but did not have my camera, and then as we were leaving the neighborhood for school today, I stopped to look at the frost in the ditch of that yard and noticed the flicker looking for insects in the lawn.  I took a few shots and then rolled down the window to take a few more and was very pleased that he did not immediately fly away.  Yep, this is a yellow-shafted adult male Northern Flicker as best as I can tell.  To date, this is the best shot I've gotten of one.  Woo hoo!

I did see him catch at least two insects.  This woodpecker prefers to look for bugs in grass and not on dead trees.  He's a ground feeder.  I wish this shot was better.  I don't know why the exposure was so off on this one.  I tried to darken up the over exposed areas using a graduated tint from the bottom up.

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Here's the frost that I stopped for:

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At this point, the kids were getting uneasy that I was going to make them late for school and coaxing me to get back in the car.  Geez...

I'm working on some images of an old house that's not far from my house, but I can't quite seem to nail or pp what I want.  I'll keep trying.