Birding

Steven and I are still mostly-actively birding. We managed to break 100 birds in the calendar year of 2014 (we still haven’t been quite birding for an entire year, but it’s easier to track based on calendar than actual begin date).

100 birds.

Super duper thrilled.

With the cold weather finally re-installed, we were able to revisit one of the most magical birding encounters we’d had thus far — and very nearly forgotten!

Nope, I’m not talking about the bald eagles or kestrels or even the nesting swans.

I’m talking about woodpeckers. Mostly small downy woodpeckers, but the periodic hairy woodpecker made an appearance as well.

When it’s chill in the air and you find just the right spot to stop and listen, they come.

You notice the first one by sound rather than sight. Something tentatively ratta-tat-tacking on a nearby tree.

Then you catch sight of it flit a bit closer, black and white ladderback with its jaunty red cap so obvious in the wintery light that you wonder how you could possibly have missed it.

Then you hear another. A moment’s search reveals it on the other side of the path, making its slow and measured way up the woody stalk of a plant.

It is at that moment, when you feel flush with the victory and wonder of having spotted them both (and so close!) that you realize you’re not alone.

There aren’t two woodpeckers. Oh, no. There are never only two. Almost as if there was some signal you missed, you see and hear four, five, maybe even seven woodpeckers, all within ten feet or so of where you’re standing. You hear a tacky-tack, a ratta-tat-tat, a hollow drumming, from above, behind, beside, and in front of you.

It’s the magic of the woodpeckers, welcoming you to the forest.

Enraptured, it would be impolite to do anything but stand and enjoy the music. Nature so seldom invites us into its world, and we’ve felt the magic of the woodpeckers enough times to feel welcome.

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