snow birds

We had our first real dump of snow, and the birds are ready to  take all the help I'm willing to give. So I loaded up the bird feeder with black oil sunflower seeds, and set some peanuts on the railing.  I stood outside in the bitter cold with my camera, knowing that shooting without a glass barrier will give me a much better result.
Not to minimize the regular visitors, the chickadees and bluejays, I get very excited when I see something else.  The other day there was a lovely downy woodpecker getting seeds.  But today, I couldn't believe my eyes.  A massive Northern Flicker was pigging out at the feeder!  This is the biggest woodpecker in North America.  I usually see them in spring, hopping around the lawn looking for worms, acting very much like anything but a woodpecker.  This guy today would eat a seed, and then flick great quantities of seeds everywhere.  Now I know why he's called a flicker!  If he wasn't such a handsome devil, I would have flicked him away from the feeder when I first noticed such bad behavior.

I caught this guy with a peanut.

Chickadees are curious and not afraid to come close.