First robin, and other matters

Since grade school, robins have meant that spring is here. It seems awfully early, but… I guess spring is here!

We went to check on the vernal pool yesterday, and though we didn’t see anything especially noteworthy there, on the way I saw this brown creeper. It graciously allowed me the best glimpse I’ve ever gotten of one, and it was quite talkative as it hopped up the trunk.

Blends in perfectly, doesn’t it? Brown creepers are little bug-eating birds that are here year-round.

We visited a very peaceful marsh and saw some red-winged blackbirds — another bird returning from the south. My husband has a special place in his heart for red-winged blackbirds. They were the first birds he was aware of when he played in the sandbox as a child. None of them posed for me though.

And we saw a pileated woodpecker. Older Daughter was tapping a tree trunk full of woodpecker holes to see if a flying squirrel might be living in one of them, when a big bird’s shadow crossed over us several times. I saw the shadow; Older Daughter spotted the bird; I took a picture.

I read recently that Woody Woodpecker was patterned after the pileated. Of course! But I never thought of it till I read that.

I think it’s a female. The male has more red on his face/sideburns. Here’s a male that flew through our back yard the other day. (None of my pics are great. It’s one of my ongoing challenges: getting a sharp pileated woodpecker photo.)

Older Daughter named him Pontius Pileated, and drew a pretty good picture!

(I couldn’t get my lens far enough away to focus well…)

One neat thing about pileated woodpeckers is that their tongues split into two parts in the back and kind of spool around the back of the skull, attached to special bones that are anchored to one of the nostrils. It used to be called the carpenter bird or the laughing woodpecker. We’re always excited to see a pileated.

A good time was had by all — especially this lovely lady, senior sibling and chief sniffer and splasher.