Right now I'm in Kansas with Nux's family. We're on the last leg of our journey before reaching the land we hope will be our home, and have been trying to keep ourselves occupied in a big city... without spending money. Heh.That's meant a lot of time spent in local parks and on trails near the house, time spent watching the National Geographic channel, the Travel channel, and keeping an eye on local wildlife. One neighbor that's hung around a lot is a red bellied woodpecker who has made a home in the tree just out back. It literally worked ALL of one day to hollow this home out, and we watched for hours as it slowly leaned deeper and deeper into the tree to remove the wood shavings.
At one point what Nux guessed to be a potential mate came by, and the home-builder stepped aside as the visiting woodpecker surveyed the home, pecked it a bit wider for just a minute, and then flew off to a nearby tree to observe.
Nux thinks that this was the mate coming in to see if the home was up to par, checking progress, as it were. It makes sense, considering that afterward the home builder started widening the hole.
This guy's been a real treat to watch, and we've been delighted to see many other types of woodpecker as well. Some with spotted black and white bellies, smaller black and white downy woodpeckers, and even two red-headed woodpeckers, that literally have a red hood and cape and then white along their back, and black around their tail and bottom. I've never seen so many types of woodpeckers in my life!
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