Evicted!

Of all days of the year to receive an eviction notice, today had to be one of the worst!  It has been a cold, dreary day on the Bayou.  While the wind was whipping the fallen leaves about the hillside, the drizzly rain was trying its best to mat them to the ground.  With temperatures in the low forties all day, it was not the best  day to be outside.  Still when evictions occur, sometimes the choice to be inside a nice cozy home cannot be had.  The evicted one put up a ruckus as he tried his hardest to get back inside.

Early this morning, I heard the strangest call of all my bird friends.  It was more of a panic cry than usual.  Now what!  I headed outside to find just what was the matter with my young Red-headed Woodpecker!  The mother bird had nested in a hole in the dead Black Gum Tree just a few feet from the front door so it was easy for me to keep track of the little ones from this spring.  Two of the young birds met a dismal fate as they fell prey to the hawk that also prowls the yard.  This left one youngster for the parent birds to raise.  Now, however, the mother bird decided that it was time for Junior to be out of her winter home.  He had grown to adult size and I suppose there was just not enough room for the two of them in the single room home.  Out he went!

I stood in the misty rain and watched for a few moments.  Instead of trying to get back inside the old home nest, the youngster should have been searching or making his own hole to use this winter.  He obviously had not learned that lesson as of yet!  He would hang on the outside of the hole and screech at Mother Bird.  She would peck at him from inside the hole where she was snug and warm against the icy rain.  After a bit, she would poke her head far out of the hole and literally knock him away from the tree.  He would fly to the next dead tree and screech his fool head off before returning to the hole.  Not once did he attempt to make his own place..he wanted to be back inside the warm nest!  Back and forth, he flew all the while making such a ruckus that I thought for sure the hawk would soon take advantage of his stupidity.  (Sorry, Junior...but you were acting a mite stupid!)  After a bit, I realized that I was shaking with the cold so I headed back inside.  From where I was working, I could hear the bird.  All afternoon, he kept up his pleading.  All afternoon, he did not look for a hole of his own.  By late evening, the drizzly rain was getting colder and the bird still did not have a place to spend the night.  I guess this was tough love..Mother Bird knew it was now or never.  Junior needed to be out on his own but what a day to be evicted!  By nightfall, Junior had settled down in the top of the dead Black Gum tree...not the brightest of all moves, Bird!  The morning light could very well see a pile of black, red and white feathers at the base of the tree if the hawk ventures through the yard.  Good luck, Junior..you are going to need it if you plan to survive the winter!