After a lazy few weeks of falling down on the job by not going into the wild for exploration, solitude and the spotting of cool birds and animals, there’s guilt at play.
Come on, if you’re a two-fisted birdwatcher, get off your butt. Hit the trail.
Pull on your beat-up boots, get binocs in your fists and lose yourself in the wild for a while. So yeah, you go. But then—whoa: the day you pick to break that run of slothfulness is wildly cold.
The wind chill factor (a dubious indicator popular with weather reporters) is flat-out vicious. Way below freezing. Even below zero! We’re talking “bitter cold,” another one of those everyday phrases surprisingly coined by Shakespeare, and he nailed it.
But you’re not in the woods to think about English Lit—you’re here to think about a jackpot sighting that would defeat discomfort from this deep freeze in deep woods. That probably won’t happen.
Still…considering the time, place and isolation—the goal bird on this hike is a Pileated Woodpecker.
You look. You listen for jackhammer blows against frozen wood. You march on. But the most interesting thing in the woods is only your breath which comes out like smoke.
No Pileated Woodpecker to welcome you back to this favorite old wilderness.. The only Pileateds on your hike are the ones that never fly out of your memory. Fun to revisit those reliable, unforgettable sightings in the mental scrapbook.
Enough for now. You leave the frozen forest to its lifeless, silent self, yet you feel vindicated. You’ve broken the ice. Literally. You’ve hit the trail, an overdue greeting to wild winter which, against common assumptions, is a fine time for birdwatching. (More about that in a future post.)
You’ll be back soon—wind chills notwithstanding. And if something good gets spotted you’ll report it. Right here.
Thanks for recalling that Oscar-nominated Woody Woodpecker song, a fun memory. And though Woody may be a toon, it’s kinda clear that he’s a Pileated Woodpecker. Another cool sighting of this jackpot bird!
“The Woody Woodpecker Song” is the only song from an animated short ever nominated for an Oscar, according to online sources. Below, an excerpt from the lyrics.
“He pecks a few holes in a tree to see
If a redwood’s really red
And it’s nothing to him, on the tiniest whim To peck a few holes in your head.”