The other day I looked out my living room window and saw a most unexpected sight: A pileated woodpecker was working up the trunk of a Norway maple, not twenty feet away.
I’ve only seen pileateds before in the north woods of Wisconsin and Minnesota. They’re crow-sized creatures with bright red mohawks and thin, almost dainty necks. Imagine the marriage of a downy woodpecker and a pterodactyl.
I was rapt in a way you’ll understand if you think about the last time you saw something totally astonishing and gorgeous that made your day. Then I did the dumb thing, which was to fumble for my phone. I should have grabbed the binocs. Or just used my danged eyes. But I wanted to capture the rare thing so I could share it.
By the time I got the camera squared away, the pileated had flown. I went out onto the porch, and I heard his distinctive piping from across the yard. Take two with the phone: I tried out my classy free Audubon bird app, dialed up pileated, and let it pipe. I couldn’t believe it, but I called the sucker in.
He flew over my head, in that swoop-and-dive woodpecker way, toward the woodlot behind my house and away. All day long I thought about the pileated woodpecker and, if I had seen you that day, I would have bored you with the story.
I wish I was one of those people who could enjoy a thing without having to talk about it, but I’m not. I didn’t get a picture, unfortunately, but I did get these 279 words, which I hope are worth about a quarter of a picture.
I’m Chris Fink, and that’s my perspective.
