Northern flicker

As I write this a rather impressive thunderstorm is approaching, so if this entry stops abrubptly you'll know why.

Anyway, the bird this week is the northern flicker, which Mrs Walles and I have been hearing more than seeing recently.  Until just recently hardly a day would go by without a couple of these astonishing birds perusing the grass out the back.

I haven't seen one for quite some time.  Mrs Walles saw one today, though, which reminded me that I'd been meaning to blog about them.

If they look a little like woodpeckers, that's because they are.  Unlike a typical woodpecker, though, they don't peck trees to eat, only to nest.  Most of the time you see them on the ground looking for tasty morsels in the grass.  But it's spring, and nesting season, so I expect the flickers are busy doing other things.  They'll be back, though.  I remember they were around a lot in the summer last year - then it was little flicker families being shepherded around by the mother.

I like them because they look like an artist has gone to town decorating them, with spots and dots and gold and a bib and a swoosh and a little red thing here and...well you get the picture - literally.  A total contrast to the minimalist crows from last week, these birds are baroque and then some.  And that decoration tends to make them look like they're smiling, like a clown's makeup, whether they're in a good mood or not.

So I look forward to their return, though the wik wik wik call we keep hearing suggests they aren't far away anyway.  Out of sight, maybe, but not out of hearing.