woody

When Melanie, Brianna and I lived and worked at the Birdhouse together, we woke every morning to the jackhammer sound of a pileated woodpecker pecking on the rain gutter. "Get up, get busy!"

We were delighted to have woodpeckers sharing our pine forest, especially since they were on the endangered species list at one time. The past couple of years we haven't seen them. Maybe we took them for granted and just stopped noticing...I don't know.

Today I looked out my window to see this interesting bird hammering away at a tree in my backyard. I was thrilled that at least one family is still here making their rectangular holes in the old pine trees that the carpenter ants have hollowed out. Tonight the dad takes over the babysitting responsibilites, and the mom will go out for some adventure until she takes on her shift again in the morning. They will find plenty of ants to eat no doubt, but they better beware because we also seem to have plenty of snakes this year; and I don't want a black racer to eat their babies!