My Bird Watching Season Opener

About mid-March, I like to clean and refill my thistle feeders in our backyard. Soon after, our backyard becomes a favorite little haven for the goldfinches for about a month or so, and then they move on and leave the seeds for the cardinals and mourning doves. I was looking out back just today thinking about the coming of the goldfinches when I saw a truly amazing sight...the largest woodpecker I've ever seen in my life was perched on our wooden fence. His head was bobbing up, down and around as he worked over a little piece of our fence. I called for Kristin, and she came over and exclaimed, "he's large enough to eat!" I then said, I've got to get a pic of this fellow if he'll let me. I went back to my room to get my camera, and then as quietly as I could manage, opened the back screen and slipped outside. It was drizzling just a little as I crept across the yard toward the back fence. I turned my camera on, and started trying to close in with my zoom before he caught sight of me. He darted to a nearby tree and quickly positioned himself opposite of where I was standing. I saw the red tuft peek out to the side as he surveyed my position, then he pulled back before I could get the shot. Finally he sailed over to another tree and I caught a blurry image as soon as he gripped the side of the tree. He then darted to another tree and I got a little shot of him searching the branch for a meal.

When I got back to the computer, I loaded the pics up, and did a quick search to determine what kind of woodpecker I'd just seen. Only one kind of woodpecker on the page even resembled him...the ivory billed woodpecker. I clicked on it to read more, and to my shock read that this variety of woodpecker was thought to be extinct until 1999, and that definitive proof of their existence, until recently, was still elusive! What's more, it said that this kind of woodpecker was the 2nd largest woodpecker in the world. I was a little more than excited by the prospect that I had seen something so rare. I told Kristin, and she called her knowledgeable friend, Amanda. Kristin was sure that her friend would have good insight since she had extensively studied birds, insects and was basically a walking naturalist's handbook. Amanda was driving near our home; she gasped and immediately re-charted her course to our house upon hearing about the possibility of such a rare sighting. While on her way, she suggested that I look up the pileated woodpecker, just so we could rule it out. By the time she arrived, I had just about come to grips with the fact that our visitor was indeed the pileated woodpecker as she suspected...beautiful and uncommon, yes; critically endangered, no. Still, it's not everyday that I get to uncover a mystery in my own backyard. I hope he lives nearby and visits often during the upcoming finch season. Who knows, maybe next time he'll bring along an ivory billed pal.