Scared Stiff!

  Early this morning while I was outside painting the new screen doors, I heard a familiar sort of "cackle".  Ahh, yes, Friend Hawk was visiting.  It stands to reason that the hawk would be nearby because I had filled the squirrel...uh..bird feeders yesterday and a good dozen or so squirrels were munching the sunflower seeds.  Occasionally, a bird would get a chance to grab a morsel but, more oft than not, the squirrels would chase the birds.  A few birds had gotten smart and were searching the ground under the feeders for errant seeds from the squirrels' foraging.  (Squirrels are not the neatest diners.)  One smart bird was the Red-bellied Woodpecker.  The bird would hunt for a seed on the ground then poke it in a hole in the post to crack it.  

  Not only was the bird smart for finding food in this way, it was far wiser in another way.  As I heard the hawk cry, I turned to check the feeders.  I really did not want to have set the doves up for an easy massacre even though I love the little Cooper's Hawk.  Let that hawk catch a squirrel!  We have far too many of those rascally rodents.

  Nope, there was nary a bird in the feeder nor on the ground.  Even the squirrels had scampered to safety.  The only bird near the feeders was that woodpecker and it was playing it safe.  The hawk was on the south side of the feeders in an oak tree.  The woodpecker was on the north side of the post and was being as still and quiet as a church mouse.  I watched as the bird hunkered down close to the feeder's post.  Hmm?  I eased my way down the board path toward the feeder.  This movement made the hawk a bit skittish and it flew back toward the canebrake.  The woodpecker, however, was not moving a muscle!  It was scared stiff...or just being overly cautious.  If the technique worked against a hawk, perhaps it would work against this intruder (me), as well!

  I decided to let the woodpecker be and headed back to my painting.  After a bit, there was a bit of a skirmish in the feeders as the squirrels had returned and the woodpecker tried to chase them!  Smart bird.