This last week of my vacation, I'm relaxing up at our little house in the Adirondacks. The place has no lawn and is surrounded by woods, so just by looking out the windows we're sometimes treated to some up-close-and-personal wildlife. I've already seen deer outside the house several times, this trip.This afternoon I was attracted by some movement outside our living-room window. I was rewarded by the sight of two very large woodpeckers, who had just zoomed in and attached themselves to a couple of trees.
These birds were LARGE - bigger than I ever imagined a woodpecker would be (although I have to say, I've never seen one this close). One flew off pretty quickly, but the other hung around for a while, moving from tree trunk to tree trunk, looking for bugs no doubt.
I tried to get a picture, but by the time I got the camera into position, it had gone. I called Claire right away (she's the birdwatcher in our family). Based on my description - it looks like Woody Woodpecker, I told her - she said it was probably a Pileated Woodpecker. I checked it out on Wikipedia, here at the public library (where I now am), and found out she nailed the identification (kudos, Claire). Wikipedia says this bird was the model for ol' Woody.Pretty cool, to see a couple birds like that right outside the window.
The Creator has all kinds of free gifts to offer us, if only we have eyes to see.
4 comments:
Dear Pastor,
I know what you mean about gifts: We had a light drizzle at dusk, accompanied by the most magnificent rainbow I've seen in my life. Discreet stripes of red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo and violet spanned the 180-degree bow. I've seen rainbows before, of course. But tonight I was awed, in the literal sense of the word. And if I hadn't been outside at the time, I would have missed it. Life is good.
With hope, Wendy
Yes, kudos to Claire!
Last night, Leno hosted an animal expert again, and this time she brought in . . . a PILEATED WOODPECKER! Very large! And, yes, she noted that Woody was patterned after one.
Enjoy the woods!
Robin
Carl, you need to look at the woodpeckers more often! Is your cottage winterized? Maybe spend more time there, cause the Woody Woodpeckers are a message from the man upstairs to perhaps enjoy life more and peck away at a few different trees.
And maybe purchase a comic book or two about Woody Woodpecker (which was first drawn by Walter Lantz).
I have a large back garden and spend hours looking at all the creatures both winged and not.
And thankful I am still able to do so!
Bryce in Southern Ontario
Bryce,
Our place is really a summer place. It has electric heat, which isn't very economical in the winter - and, it's not so well insulated. Yet, it can sometimes be used in the winter months, and sometimes we do.
It's a nearly 7 hour drive from home, though, which makes it out of reach for short visits.
Carl
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