Bad Karma?

  First, I owe you an apology.  Yesterday, I made the assumption that the Red-bellied Woodpeckers loud calls were their way of luring their fledglings from the nest.  Nope. I was mistaken.  The calls were obviously one of joy over the hatching of the eggs.  My mistake became clear when I realized that the little ones could not be old enough to fly from the nest.  This was obvious due to the fact that just in March, a different scenario took place.

  Back in March, I was elated to find that an European Starling was nesting in the dead Black Gum Tree.  While most folks would rather not have starlings in their yard, I am not most folks.  I was happy.  This bliss lasted just a few days as the Red-bellied Woodpeckers raided the nest and devoured the eggs.  I was horrified that such a dastardly deed could take place so near my front door!  But life goes on and since the woodpeckers nested in the same hole, all was seemingly well once again.  Then tragedy struck.  Karma came back to bite the woodpeckers in almost the same way that they had dealt with the starlings.  

  This morning, I awoke to the most irritating fuss being stirred up just outside my window.  The parent Red-bellied Woodpeckers were alarmed at something!  I opened the front door just in time to see a Red-headed Woodpecker attempt a raid on the nest.  Oh, my goodness!  Mama Red-belly was screeching and flapping her wings to ward off the attacker.  In flew Papa Red-belly.  The battle was quite fierce with the two birds actually falling to the ground from the force of their battle.  More Red-heads joined in the fight.  Mama Red-belly darted back into the hole to protect the little ones while Papa fought valiantly against terrible odds.  I counted five Red-heads in the melee.  Poor Papa was fighting a losing battle.  Mama, in the meantime, tried to protect the nest from being raided by the marauding Red-heads.  After a bit, the Red-heads retreated to the oak trees to regroup.  Papa Red-belly hurriedly checked on his wife and then raced to find food for his little ones.  The bowl of cat food was the quickest meal he could find so he took full advantage of it.  Back and forth, he flew.  Trying to feed the family before the onslaught resumed....and resumed it did.  This went on for the entire day.  Several times, Mama Red-belly was forced from the nest. I know for a fact that at least one of the little tykes was hauled from the nest.  It was not a pretty sight.

  This all made me rather sad for the Red-bellied Woodpecker family.  How cruel it was of the Red-headed Woodpeckers to attack and kill the babies.  Then, I recalled the previous family that had resided in the nesting hole.  Karma? Not really.  It is more like survival of the fittest or life in the avian world.  Raising little ones is never easy and sometimes it is the youngsters that pay the price for the adults' actions.  Poor baby birds.  And to think...there was nothing I could do to help.

Menace or Hero?

Ole Albert was at it again early this morning so I decided to slip outside and see just what he was pecking!  Rat-a-tat-tat!  He was determined to wake me! Slipping on my moccasins, I realized that it was raining.  Well, that ended that idea!  I was not about to get wet because of a woodpecker!  Still, I was curious..why is this woodpecker always pounding on my house?  I listened.  From the sound, he was pounding away on the eave of the living room.  I knew then that I would be able to view him without even his knowing!  I quietly opened the side door of the house and slipped into the entryway.  This small room has windows on three sides and gives me a clear view of most of the yard.  Sure enough, there was the culprit!  Even in the drizzly rain, he pounded!  Rat-a-tat-tat!  Then with his head cocked to one side, he would listen.  What was he hearing?  Why was he drilling holes in my house?  This menace of a bird was tearing my house to shreds!

I watched as the bird literally tore a hole in the fascia board on the west side of the living room.  I suddenly had a sinking feeling.  Were there termites eating my house?  I am quite sure that the bird did not intentionally want to demolish my house!  There has to be some reason for him to be drilling holes into the wood!  Later when the rains stopped, I convinced Michael that he should clamber up to the rooftop and take a gander at what the woodpecker was doing. I definitely do not want termites infesting the house and me not do a thing to stop them!  Again, I watched but this time it was at Michael dangling over the edge of the roof as he peered into the gash that the woodpecker had ripped.  Nothing.  He even listened carefully but could not hear any gnawing.  (I am not sure you could hear a termite chewing in a board but it did make me feel some better knowing that Michael did not!  That would probably be very bad news!)  Ok..so he did not find termites!  Good news!  Then I heard..."but...."  Oh my..that did not sound good.  "But, what?" I queried.  "Well, there are a lot of ants up here."  Ants?  On my rooftop?  Could the woodpecker be eating ants?  And why are there ants on my roof?

The discovery of the ants made me realize that something must be done.  Tomorrow, Michael and I will find some sort of critter-killing stuff to put into the eaves of the living room in hopes of killing the ants.  I hope this does not bother Ole Albert as he is now my hero!  My opinion of him changed mightily..from menace to hero with the discovery of the ants.  Maybe Ole Albert was once again trying to tell me something...something important!.....Ants...ants in my rooftop..just imagine!  Mark and Michael will now have to take down and replace the fascia board which will give us a better view of just what, if any, damage has been done.  Good Ole Albert!

Albert comes to visit!

Years ago, a friend used to visit the Little Bayou House quite often.  I miss him.  He was an elderly man named Albert.  I never knew when he was going to pop in to see me but it was always a pleasant surprise when he did.  Sometimes it would be early..early morning..before seven!  This did not bother me as I was an early riser and he would stop in to share a cup of coffee and a joke or two.  Never once did he bring dour news or complain about anything at all.  This all made his visits quite enjoyable.  One thing that amused me was his knock at the door.  It was never a simple knock but almost a "jingle" of raps.  Rap, rap, rappity, rap!  By that distinctive rapping, the kids as toddlers knew it was ok to open the door.  Sadly. Albert passed away leaving a gaping hole in our lives.

Not long after his death, I heard the familiar "rap, rap, rappity, rap" at the door early one morning!  Oh, my!  To say that I was taken aback by this would be an understatement.  The kids raced to the door to see Albert.  They were elated!  I was stunned!   The flung-open door revealed no one..Albert was not there.  This confused both the kids and me.  Were our minds playing tricks on us?   The next morning at seven..."rap, rap, rappity, rap".  Again, I opened the door to no one.  This was strange.  After the third morning of rapping, I decided to slip out the side door and investigate.  I was out at daybreak...waiting.  Not a person showed up at the door to do the knocking.  Still, I heard the familiar sound.  I was amazed at the visitor!  "There came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping"..at my front door (to steal a phrase from Edgar Allan Poe!).  The rapper was none other than a woodpecker!  After explaining to the kids who was doing the knocking, they agreed to name the woodpecker Albert.  The bird visited often and always tapped out the same rhythm of knocks as our friend Albert!  Had this bird watched the real Albert as he came visiting?  Had he learned the sequence of taps?  Or was this a sign that Albert was thinking of us?  The kids loved the latter and from that point on, they were quick to yell, "Mr. Albert is here and is telling us to behave!"  Wow!  I loved that, too!!

The rapping quit after the kids were grown.  Albert, the bird, no longer visited the Little Bayou House.  Was there just no reason for its visits or had the bird met its demise?  Who knows..but I sort of missed the morning wake-up call.  Then, after a decade or so, "rap, rap, rappity, rap"!  Huh?  This morning, I was jarred from sleep by the gently tapping at the door.  Was this the same Albert?  Birds do not live that long, do they?  Or is that rhythmic rapping some universal jingle that woodpeckers do?  Or....did Albert, my friend, just let me know that he was thinking of me?  Awww....I like the last one!

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!

Birding!

Shelby keeping a watchful eye..for wherever I move!

Knox looking big an brave until another Mockingbird approaches..

Just about daybreak, I will head out to my chair in the yard to watch the world come to life. The birds seem to start the process with their chirping that after a few minutes evolves into full-blown singing. I have been watching the birds a lot lately if for no other reason than to keep the neighborhood adult Mockingbirds from totally mangling the two juveniles that were in my foster care. I released them this week only to watch them be smacked about a good bit by the locals. It seems that the Mockingbirds are the only ones that are this territorial. I know that this is only because there are three nests of young birds that have just flown. Bugs are scarce so the adults do not want the competition of two more hungry mouths. Knox and Shelby, the two fostered birds, don't have enough "street smarts" as of yet so they seem to ask for trouble from their neighbors. And trouble has no problem finding them. If any bird of any species happens to fly near, they begin to chirp and their mouths fly open like they were babes. More often than not, the bird ignores the two and go on its merry way. There is one pair of Cardinals that will actually poke a bug in the gaping mouths of the two young Mockingbirds. I think the Cardinals just do this to get them to shut their mouths!

Baby Red-headed Woodpecker leery to come to the feeder.

Like I said, I have been watching the birds a lot. Today, there was a newbie at the feeder. I wish Hubby would have been here as it was a baby Red-headed Woodpecker. He loves the Red-heads! This is actually the first time that I have witnessed a baby Red-head come to the feeder. This one still had its "baby feathers" and did not have its red head. There were just a few red feathers that made it identifiable! If it had not been for the ever-present parent birds, I might not have been able to recognize this as a Red-head. It seems that we have more Red-Headed Woodpeckers this year than ever before. Just a few years back, I can remember that I would go all summer without viewing a single one and now there are four pairs that visit the feeders. Yes, there is the usual squabbling about who gets what feeder but usually they resolve their differences and get along pretty well. The little one was a bit leery about coming so close to me but finally it was convinced that I was not a threat and it made a beeline for the feeder with the peanuts. It would carefully take one out and then fly to the ground to eat the nut. The Red-headed was in competition for the feeder with the young Red-bellied Woodpecker. Both seemed to want the peanuts! The Red-bellied would take its peanut to a hole in the driftwood post, insert it in the hole and then proceed to crack it open. This went on for about twenty minutes before both obviously got their fill. The Red-bellied headed to the birdbath while the Red-headed went back to its perch in the dead pine tree.

He finally made it!

This evening, I watched the little rail as she puddled around on the mud flats and in the tidal pools hunting for bull minnows. She would dart this way and that way chasing whatever would wiggle. Finally after a bit, she plopped down in the water and sent up a shower of droplets. Ezzy, the dog, and I sat watching her splash about in the water for a few minutes before we headed to the end of the pier to check the crab traps.

A rail fishing for her supper!