My busy schedule has left me with little time for birding trips, and I have been feeling as if the entire season might pass me by. In response, I have become more aware of the birds here at home. I'm observing the common birds longer and sighting the uncommon visitors more frequently.

Last week, while hoeing the garden under for the winter, I was suddenly startled by the loud tin-horn blasting call of a pileated woodpecker. The sight of this majestic crow size bird dazzled me as I stood there in the filtered light of that autumn afternoon. The large beak, midnight black wings, white stripes down the neck, and the flashings of the purest red adorned the impressive frame of this, the largest woodpecker known to the Northeast. He worked the trunk of my old black oak carefully, let out a startling call, and flew to another massive oak a little further back from the house before leaving.

I have heard his trumpet many times since but have not seen him again. Pileated woodpeckers have huge territories of at least 300-plus acres. They prefer a mature forest with large trees and plenty of dead standing tree snags. They have a distinct wild affinity, are extremely wary, shy, and very elusive during the breeding season. My guess: he lives somewhere in the nearby Babcock Wildlife Management Area off of Route 16 on Miles Standish Road in Colchester.

A few days later, while walking out to my car, I glimpsed an unfamiliar silhouette. It looked like a hairy woodpecker, but closer attention identified it as a yellow-bellied sapsucker. It was yet another woodpecker common to more wilder places, but this bird not nearly as large or wary.

It was probably stopping for food and rest while in migration. These mid-sized woodpeckers breed in northern New England and beyond. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers winter over anywhere south of New Jersey and can sometimes show up at suet feeders in our region in the autumn. They will travel through our region again in mid- to late April.

Another visitor from the north, the tiny yellow-crowned kinglet, turned up one afternoon while I was sweeping leaves off the deck. It appeared in the hemlock that grows beside the house, where, a few days earlier, a shy hermit thrush emerged. Both birds are quiet, shy and unassuming. It is easy to overlook them, as they stay close to cover.

The kinglet I never saw again, but the hermit thrush has hung around. They are a hardy bird, typically found breeding above 2,000 feet within northern hardwood forests. It wouldn’t surprise me if it stayed for part of the winter. I put crushed fruit out back specifically for wintering insectivores that convert to a diet of fruit in the winter.

While the woodpeckers, kinglet and hermit thrush were uncommon birds and exciting discoveries, my desire for an excursion has remained. Fortunately, I have set some time aside in the next few weeks for coastal birding. I have been getting reports of harlequin ducks, surf scoters and king eiders. In the meantime, I have my hermit thrush to observe and the chance sighting of more uncommon visitors. Sometimes the best birding is right in your own backyard.

Robert Tougias is a Colchester-based birding author. You can email him questions at rtougias@snet.net.