I read a story about a family driving from Kentucky to Toronto in a book this week. This family stopped at a way out of the way spot to check out some bullfrog serenade that is apparently quite famous. The key is that you have to sit still for a while and become part of the environment in order to see and hear the big guys.

On my retreat this weekend I had several projects that I wanted to complete and some reading to do. I went out on the porch of the cabin to knit for a while. There was this incredibly loud noise, and very annoying.

I thought about going inside but then I thought I would wait it out and see what was making the noise. I am so glad I did. When we got up Saturday morning there were all kinds of little birds and a couple of big female woodpeckers at the feeder. The woodpeckers were mostly gray with some white on their faces. Pretty but not flashy.

The noise that I was hearing was the male trying to get me to go away from the feeder. I laid my knitting down in my lap and just sat very still. Eventually he got so brazen that he sat there and ate his lunch while I watched. He was beautiful and quite loud but sitting there quietly watching him was about the most amazing thing I did all weekend. I think I must have sat there for 45 minutes just watching and waiting to see how close he would get.

Of course I didn’t have the camera in my lap so no pictures but I doubt I would have gotten very good ones with the phone camera anyway and I usually and up scaring them away while taking the picture. So this is the closest I could find to a picture but I believe this is him.  And after reading a bit about this type of bird I think he was probably looking for bugs in the feeder!