This attractive grackle-sized woodpecker is seen more often on the ground than other woodpeckers.

Here they investigate ant hills looking for their preferred food, ants.

The name comes from their habit of flicking leaves about looking for ants.

In my lifetime, flickers have been called Common Flickers, Yellow-shafted Flickers

and by their current name; Northern Flicker.

Unlike Downy, Hairy, Pileated and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Flickers migrate south to the United States and beyond in the fall.

Flickers are common and widespread in wooded areas with openings such as forest edges and golf courses.

Males have a dark “mustache”:

Females do not:

Other birds:

Species list: Canada goose, ring-billed gull, red-tailed hawk, mourning dove, downy woodpecker, northern flicker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, American robin, European starling, common grackle, northern cardinal, American goldfinch. (15 species)

Park views:

Today’s group:

Some botany:

NATURE POETRY

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; – Keats

Miles Hearn