Redheaded Woodpecker

pensive woodpecker

remembering a fallen tree

food and shelter past

We normally have three varieties of woodpeckers at our feeders; Downy, Hairy, and Redbellied. Today we have vistor, a Redheaded Woodpecker.  Neat and trim with crisp markings.  He'll move on in a day or two; he's a creature of dead snags and open fields, not oak woods.  They were common when I was a boy, but when farmers got more free time they began to neaten things up - mowing ditches, cutting down dead trees, generally grubbing things out, all under the guise of "improvement". I think one Redheaded Woodpecker is worth a lot of dead trees in the fencerows.