Mama and Daddy Downy Woodpecker

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About a month ago, my husband noticed some activity in a tree that sits just next to our lower deck. The activity was about 12 feet straight up on a section of the tree that died and was removed. The activity involved woodpeckers.

We live on a ravine with a creek and we have quite a bit of "urban wildlife." Actually, though I call it urban wildlife because we live in a large suburb of a major Ohio city, we have some interesting wild animals around, including lately, a coyote and a muskrat. Anyway, we have a lot of birds -- run of the mill stuff mostly, as well as owls and a Cooper's hawk that hangs around to feed. We also have some visiting Blue Herons. The woodpeckers are considered run of the mill because there are an abundance of them around. And we're really not that fond of them because they often cause trouble. They peck on the house and burrows holes looking for bugs. They can make a pretty big mess (and a big racket).

When they started this activity in the tree we thought they were just burrowing for bugs. A couple days later we realized what they were doing. While mother Robins and Cardinals were trying to create grass and mud nests in every available location around (including about the light on our front porch), this busy mama and daddy were carving their nest out of a tree. They created a perfect little entry hole and then busied themselves for days carving a little space out of the center of the dead trunk. Incredible little creatures! They had nested in the dead tree and were waiting for a brood of baby woodpeckers to hatch.

Within a few weeks we noticed activity of a different nature. Mama and daddy Woodpecker were coming and going at a rapid rate, and popping in and out of the hole. They would pass each other coming and going, sometimes waiting for the other to come out of the hole before going in. The entire time the parents are gone, the babies cry -- it sounds like a loud chorus of crickets. It is really incredible activity -- it goes on all day long with the parents flying off to find food and returning every three to four minutes. Back and forth all. day. long. I have often said that if human parents had to work as hard as birds, humans would have died off long ago.

I caught some pictures, though the clarity is not great.

Fortuitously, I read a post at Renee's about birdwatching last week and ordered binoculars for the little kids and a new bird book. They arrived on Monday. The kids and I have been sitting on the deck with our new birdwatching binoculars, seeing it all up very close. Very cool. An awesome science lesson. I read (here's a great bit of information, if you're interested) that the birds often return to their nest for future nests -- hoping they'll consider this home.

Mama bird lands -- she always looks around before she goes in.
I'm assuming she's looking for danger.

Mama goes in and daddy swoops n behind her.

Daddy lands and waits for mama to come out.

Daddy disappears inside.

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