Until recently I lived at the crest of a wooded hill that is suitably named, “Woodycrest Avenue”. Why I lived there is the subject for another post very soon, but just before my recent “Exodus” from that beloved, peaceful location, I had a friendly encounter with a woodpecker. I write “friendly” because it let me get surprisingly close as I snapped pictures of it without flying away as most of the birds in my former yard would when they noticed me. This guy was a “cool pecker”, going about his business on my tall front-yard pine tree. When he noticed me, he sort of glanced over in my direction for a second, and then went back to studying that tree bark! lol Here he is, sequentially as I crept closer for a “three-gap on a tree-sap”…

closer…

and right after he noticed me, feathers unruffled…

I likely could have crept closer, still after this shot…

This close encounter caused me to research kinds of Woodpeckers for the first time in my life. I’ve always noticed where woodpeckers had been on the barks of trees; their circled carvings are unmistakable artwork themselves!
My best guess, according to my research, is that this was a “Hairy” or “Downy” Woodpecker. It would have been coolest if it was like my favorite cartoon Woodpecker of my TV-watching youth, “Woody Woodpecker” who I glean was actually a hybrid of the “Pileated” and “Red-Headed” Peckers! I love read-headed ladies, by the way! Ok, I digress – the subject-matter can cause laughably acute silliness.

I often described my former abode by saying, “Its like living in a park, and I am the ‘parkeep/!” I had Robins, noisy Raven-like Crows, Cardinals, Bluebirds and Northern Mocking birds, but last month, just before I left, was the first time I’d ever spied a Woodpecker. OK, Audubon enthusiasts, peck away at this piece!