No, not me on the keyboard. Nor me sitting there unpicking something that I thought I had stitched correctly only to find the mistake several rows further down the cross stitch.
No – this pecking was for real. A slightly red on the bead real.
I was sitting on the back deck, the first day we have had in just about forever that the air was fresh, clear, and cool. Somewhere ahead and in the redwoods was this irregular tapping sound. Hammering coming from one of the houses on the road above us?
No. One each small woodpecker busily excavating, stopping for a second or two before resuming his work.
His head was not as bright as the picture in the Audubon Bird Guide which leads me to believe (along with the fact that red-crested woodpeckers are found in the SE and not the Pacific Northwest, that this particular young bird is a different woodpecker. Or sap-sucker? No black and white strikes Anyway – he provided more than an hour of entertainment.
My Sibley’s guide shows green dots meaning that there are occasional sightings of Red-headed woodpeckers on the west coast. But if there are no stripes, I’m wondering, could it have been an Acorn woodpecker? They like to peck out acorn-size holes, insert an acorn, and I’ve watched them in Pacific Grove fussing over them like, nah, I think that hole’s a more perfect fit, let’s move that one over there…
That makes me feel a lot better!