As I stared out the window, letting my mind wander from my work, a sudden flash of color caught my eye. A female pileated woodpecker worked a 10-inch white pine twenty feet beyond the feeders. Her bold red crest and solid black back in sharp contrast to the flat, gray woods. As she flew to the backyard I followed her path as she landed on a red maple. Just as I glanced through my binoculars, the male flew in with great sweeping wing beats and landed on the same maple that the female had recently left. For the next hour they flew from dead or dying tree to dead or dying tree in the small woods behind our house. The male spent 10 minutes near the base of a six-inch dead white pine. He chiseled and flicked large pieces of bark over his shoulder, eventually clearing four feet of bark from the tree.
Aria and I walked back to the woods to stretch our legs and I took a few photos of the recent woodworking by the male pileated woodpecker. Insect trails and fresh woodpecker holes were clear and bright in the exposed wood. The woodpeckers seem to know in advance which trees have insects beneath the bark, as they rarely visited healthy, live trees. As we walked back to the house, the pair of pileateds flew overhead, gracefully moving through the canopy to the next big dead tree.
Just as we settled back in - me at the computer, Aria on the carpet near my feet -- the flock of goldfinches at the feeder disappeared suddenly. That always means one thing -- a predator has swooped in. There on a branch was a male sharp-shinned hawk. A beautiful bird, which sat for a few minutes, letting me get a good look through the binoculars. He was small for a hawk-- like a slender robin -- with a small bill and head, orange legs and feet, slate-gray back and head, slightly notched long, square tail, brightly barred breast, and a bright yellow spot at the base of its bill. The small birds stayed away from the feeder, so the sharp-shinned left to continue on its hunting rounds.
Sometimes I wonder if I should go back to a "regular job" -- one at an office, with regular hours and people to talk to. Then I think how I'd miss seeing a pair of pileated woodpeckers flick chunks of bark or a sharp-shinned hawk rest on a branch, taking walks throughout the day, listening to nature when I pleased, or writing this blog. Thanks to Srini for working the regular job and doing the long commute, so I can pursue my interests and work and play from the breakfast room/office. Aria's tail is going thump, thump, thump as she dreams - she agrees.
Always a pleasure to see Pileateds! We saw two, acting a bit like yours, on the combined Philadelphia Mid-Winter Bird Census and Christmas Bird Count about 6 weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteWork. Always a question. For me, as someone who's still working, it's always better not to work if you can afford it, for many of the reasons that you mention. But there is a sort of social interaction that is often missing when you don't work, and a regularity of schedule. I've both found those appealing back in the distant past. But now I long for the time when I can go out walking when I want, paint when I want, see the local Pileateds, see the migrants arrive, the first flowers bloom, etc. I can probably go for a 25 period of no work social interaction at this point I think!
Anyway good luck with your decision about work. I'm sure you'll quickly realize that you do miss all the things that you thought you would........