While sitting on my porch last week – drinking coffee of course – I noticed a chickadee perching on this dead tree that I previously had paid very little, if any attention to.
It’s early spring, so I thought maybe it was looking for holes in which to nest, but it wasn’t long before I saw another bird, the hairy woodpecker, pecking away looking for insects on this same tree. Needless to say, that chased away the chickadee, who perched on a small branch to the side of the dead tree, waiting for the bigger guy to get his fill and move along.
He was in for a wait, however, because in moments hairy was replaced by the even larger red-bellied woodpecker….who doesn’t just peck, but hammers away!
A closer look at the beak in the below picture of “red” reveals his hammering produced a tasty treat.
In my mind, this little dead tree was going to provide many photographic delights in the future, and I was more than up to the task.
Fast forward several days….my husband had contacted people to come and clear away some of the brush and fallen branches, and yeah, you can guess where this is leading…. right up to the ode. I had never mentioned my newfound delight in this little, dead tree to my husband, so my dear, dead tree was part of the doomed.
I’m not going to wax poetic or resemble anything like an ode should be, but suffice it to say, I sure am going to miss that little, dead tree and all the moments that could have been.
∼Jen
Birds, Blooms and all things Beautiful 