Participant Photo: A Downy in peril

I took advantage of this poor little male Downy Woodpecker. He was frozen on the feeder, afraid to move, because there was a Sharp-shinned Hawk eyeing him from a nearby tree, just waiting for the Downy to leave the feeder and fly out into the open where he’d be easy-pickings for the hawk. I went out on the porch, just seven feet away from the feeder, still the Downy didn’t fly off, so I snapped the picture. It was gratifying to discover that, between myself and the hawk, the Downy considered me the lesser of two evils! The second shot is the hawk on his stakeout in the tree.