That is a very cool picture of a Pileated Woodpecker which Hank took today and sent around to the family in a text. The bird was in his yard which also attracts a good number of "regular" redheaded woodpeckers as well as other birds. On the Cornell Lab "All About Birds" page, the Pileated Woodpecker is described as "...one of the biggest, most striking birds on the continent." It's a fun page and I learned a lot from it. It's also got some cool pictures on it. It was a bit of nice synchronicity that Hank sent this picture today as yesterday, Wilma at South Englishtown Gazette posted about a woodpecker she sees around her place in Belize and I remarked in the comments that it looked to be related to our Pileated Woodpecker. Hers is a Lineated Woodpecker and yes, they do look very similar although our bird is a bit bigger than hers. The Pileated can be from 16-19 inches in length while the Lineated bird is from 12.4 inches to 14.2 inches, both of which are large birds no matter how you look at it.
People sometimes get the Pileated Woodpecker confused with the now-extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker which was even larger than the Pileated. It is not absolutely proven that the Ivory Billed is entirely gone but there has not been a reliable sighting since 1986. Their extinction (if indeed it is) was due to "climate change, habitat loss, and collection," according to a PBS North Carolina article.
Yay, humans, right?
We are fucking great at using this planet as our toilet and bottomless source of not only what we need but what we might have any whimsical hankering for. Plus, we just do love to kill things. But hey- you know, God gave us dominion over all so it's cool.
Anyway, the beautiful Pileated variety is alive and well. I see them here in Lloyd sometimes. I love the way they fly, scooping air with their wings and releasing it. It's like swimming in the air.
It's raining again. And damn if I didn't get a tornado watch alert on my phone a few hours ago. This is crazy. We didn't get anything but a regular old moderate storm yesterday and same today. Thunder grumbled and complained like Rip Van Winkle's empty belly, the rain poured down, and now it's only a light patter, a sweet curtain of sound behind the evening bird song.
I've stayed home today, not feeling terrible, not feeling terrific. I ironed, and scrubbed toilets, washed clothes and worked on Dolly's head piece of Linda Sue's felted flowers. Just a normal day in the life of a sixty-seven year old woman in Lloyd, Florida. Tonight I hope to finish up the book I've been gulping. Bordain: The Definitive Oral Biography. I just want to have it done. It's making me so sad. I'm not sure that any of us are able yet to accept the fact of his death and how it occurred and yet at the same time, it seems that it was so inevitable. He told many people in the last bit of his life that this new romance he was having with Asia Argento was "going to end so badly."
Yeah. It did. I'm not blaming her, though. She just had a darkness to her that I think he craved and sought. He had not become a junkie for no reason whatsoever and his gift and his downfall was his constant search to fill up the addict's need.
At least, that's my take on it.
Ay yi.
A frog is croaking in the little almost-pond in the camellia bed and that song is one of the many soundtracks my life has been set to. The rain, the thunder, the birds' songs and calls from hawk to finch to crow, the wind as it whispers and ssshes through the leaves in my yard- these are all as familiar to me as my own voice. They are the heartbeat of the dirt and land and sky where I live. They do, in fact, represent life itself.
I love them.
Love...Ms. Moon
Another great life filled post. Bourdain had a seemingly glamorous successful life but a personally fraught one. I didn't like his approach to people in his programs, too frenzied and fomo for me to handle.. I was sad to hear he'd ended it though, always hoped he'd find a center. I guess it was not to be.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, one of the people interviewed for the book called him a rare and strange mixture of narcissist and empath. This seems contradictory, doesn't it? Well, humans are diverse and mysterious.
DeleteWell I just had to look up "pileated". It is a new word to me. It means "having a crest covering the pileum". But what is "the pileum"? It's "the top of the head of a bird from the bill to the nape". From now on I will be sticking these words in conversation whenever I get the opportunity to do so.
ReplyDeleteSo glad I could help with your impressive conversational skills. I'm sure those words will come in handy sooner or later down at the pub!
DeleteI can not take in any more sorrow. not today.
ReplyDeleteHank's pecker is magnificent!
God is such a joker, I want to punch him in the face!
What god?
DeleteAs Hank's mother, I cannot be discussing peckers in relation to him. I am sure you understand.
Great photo, Hank! We saw pileateds where we lived in Georgia and in Minnesota and I never tired of spotting one. I think your cold front will be down our way in a couple of days. I am looking forward to some rain and slightly cooler temps.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am loving the cooler air and the rain. I will take those any day!
DeleteWe have so many woodpecker varieties here in the woods. I used to watch out for a pileated in the valley; I could hear him often. The only time I saw him, it left before I could turn the car around for a better look. Big barely describes the size, and we have some good sized birds in owls and buzzards.
ReplyDeleteIt's so true! They are HUGE! I love them and always feel like I've been blessed when I see one.
DeleteThe bird really is pretty magnificent!
ReplyDeleteAnthony Bourdain ... what can you say other then the damned drugs really got the better of him! The choices one makes!!!
So glad you aren't feeling poorly!
Well, he kept using different things to fill in the hole that quitting heroin left, I think, from work to martial arts to that last tragic love affair. Which, honestly, I think pushed him over the edge.
DeleteI pine for the sound and feel of raindrops.......I think we are done here in Cali. unfortunately. Another NOT good rainfall year. And that woodpecker is spectacular! We have many varieties here but never seen one of those. We've been watching Anthony Bourdain *no reservations* re-runs and always makes me sad......such a tortured soul.....but such a magnificent person. And hubby is thankfully slowly improving from his concussion and beat up body after his bike mishap. He's going to try sleeping in bed tonite for first time in 4 nights.....I put clean sheets on and lets hope it goes well for both of us!
ReplyDeleteAlso hope you feel better.....Jessie and boys too!
Susan M
Oh, how I remember finally being able to sleep in my bed after I broke those ribs! And how I remember appreciating Glen letting me use his chair when it was the only place I could be comfortable. I surely hope that your man can sleep well in his bed tonight.
DeleteYes. Bourdain had such a darkness to him but such a light at the same time, didn't he? The last few episodes of No Reservations really, really showed him moving into that darkness. It was pretty obvious.
For some reason I always though woodpeckers were small birds, yours up there is lovely and it's nice to know they are big, so easily spotted.
ReplyDeleteI could never keep going with a book that makes me sad to the bone. It would go into the thrift shop pile and I would start on something else.
Oh, there are smaller woodpeckers! We get them on our trees and on the feeder. The Pileated ones are much rarer and perhaps shyer.
DeleteThis book was from the library and although it made me sad it also fascinated me as Bourdain was such a complex character who was absolutely a genius at certain things.
I've seen a pileated woodpecker out here but only a time or two. And believe it or not, I saw one in my yard a couple of times when I lived in the city.
ReplyDeleteWe did not get any rain besides a drizzle or two and we really need some. I got all but one of the azaleas watered, fertilized, mulched, and watered again yesterday and had two encounters with wildlife, a striped snake and a striped lizard.
Well, Hank doesn't live exactly in the city but it's definitely not in the country. It's sort of an older development with lots and lots of trees.
DeleteI haven't seen a snake in yonks. Now watch- I'll find one in a chicken nest tomorrow!
Good for you on the azaleas! I never fertilize or water mine but like I've said- every few years Glen gets a bug up his ass about them and trims them down to nubs. They come back.
I love pileated woodpeckers. A year or two ago the NYT did a story about the ivory-billed woodpecker that included a video of it, and that was astonishing -- to see one moving and fluttering in all its glory, as if it weren't gone forever.
ReplyDeleteYes! The Lord God Bird! What a sin and a tragedy that they are gone.
DeleteThat's a terrific photo of the woodpecker. Thanks for all of the interesting info about them. Hope all of you are feeling better.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ellen!
DeleteThanks so much for the tip on the Bordain book. I always download a sample of books you recommend to my kindle to see if I would like it. I don't always get to them but I have often enjoyed them. In fact I sent my former MIL a copy of Where The Crawdads Sing but forgot to put my name on the parcel so she was flummoxed for a while! And as for your woodpecker, I have very rarely seen them here but by golly they are lovely. Usually when I'm sitting in my garden I hear a tap, tap, tap and there he is - when he's not too shy to make an appearance!
ReplyDeleteOh my god! I am certain I did not recommend Where The Crawdads Sing because I did not like it very much! In fact, I didn't even finish it. But I'm like the only person in the world who didn't think it was marvelous!
DeleteYou have woodpeckers? I am amazed.
We have pileated woodpeckers here too and I love to see them. We also have little downy woodpeckers which are so tiny and sweet.
ReplyDeleteI tried to read a book about Anthony Bourdain but couldn't. He was a very sad man I think. I know that feeling somedays:)
I'm stuck at home for a month now and I have a cane! WTF. My plantar fasciitis is bad right now and I saw a podiatrist yesterday which makes me officially old. Rest and stretches she said. I see her again in two weeks. I'm fine with a month off work right now. I think I'm kinda depressed again because I feel overwhelmed with the thought of making supper or cleaning.
Happily the sun is shining today and the snow is almost gone.
Well, at least you have a cane and not a walker! I'm glad you're taking care of that foot and taking some of the strain off of it.
DeleteYes. When the things we normally do almost without thinking become overwhelming, it's generally depression. I'm so sorry! You are so strong and you do so much and you keep it together for everyone. Eventually, it has to catch up with you.
Breathe. And yes, stretch. Your foot and your soul.