I’m forever looking out the window.
Even when I’m immersed in a banking or children’s writing project, my peripheral vision keeps an eye on the treetops surrounding our house. I don’t catch fascinating critter behavior every day, or even every week. And of late, I seem to be in a wildlife dry spell. I suspect they’ve all been hiding from the recent scorching heat and thunderstorms.
So, I thought I might have to skip a blog post (I shoot for about every two weeks).
But this morning, I was searching for bird video related to a children’s book I’m working on, and I found an irresistible clip to share.
This short subject is from the month I filmed a Pileated Woodpecker pair as they excavated a nest cavity, followed by another month of highly entertaining nestling antics. That was in 2015. I was so captivated by the visual show that it seems I missed some fascinating nuance captured in the audio.
Here’s the clip. Be sure to watch the bird’s expression when he hears his neighbors.
He sure seems to take note of the geese and what sounds like a Baltimore Oriole. I can’t decide if he’s disturbed by his noisy neighbors, the geese. Or, is he a music aficionado, trying to identify the bird that’s singing a woodland opera, perhaps making his excavation work a more pleasant task?
Either way, I see a certain expressiveness here. Or maybe that’s just me, anthropomorphizing (again).
I completely agree Carol that he’s expressive! Fascinating!
A woodpecker biologist once told me that she finds woodpeckers to have tons of personality. I felt so vindicated… an ornithologist sees their expressions, too!