Tag: woodpecker

Looking Forward

A Hairy Woodpecker finds the bugs below the bark on a fir tree.

The birds are singing, pretending its spring. Can they be fooled along with the rest of us?

+8 today.

The lake has shed the snow. If it freezes hard we could get in some more skating. That would be nice, but unlikely.

February and March can be deceiving. Warm, wind and bitter cold. In November you know it’s coming. March should be better. The cold, like everything in nature, hangs in there putting up the biggest fight right at the end. Passionately holding onto what keeps slipping between the fingers.

Show off

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There mornings are brilliant but a chilly -28°. The afternoons warm to about -3. These are fantastic days when spring is trying to bust through.

This male Northern Flicker knows the score. He is banging on the top of the pole getting the metal parts singing with vibration. He is a real show off, securing the first of the sunshine, trying to attract a mate.

When I was a kid we used to have a Flicker that rapped on our metal chimney cap. It made a heck of a racket throughout the house.

To all of our delight my father used to sing:

The woodpecker pecked
on the school house door.
He pecked and he pecked
till his pecker was sore.