Believe Red Headed to be Red Bellied

March 26, 2010.  Friday.

Situation:  Yesterday I did take Mway for a second walk, a short one, past the summer house to the strawberry field then right up to the clearing.   7 or 8 fetches, making up for slacking off in the morning.  I also managed to get the chickens back in their cage.  And I’ve also noticed that the forsythias on the side of the house have turned yellow.  This morning I get around to taking Mway for her first walk about 9:30.  Down in the kitchen, as I’m putting on my jacket, hat, and gloves, and Mway is hopping at the door in anticipation, she starts barking.  She knows I don’t like her to do this, and she usually only barks with Moi (that is, at the door; during fetching, she barks regularly with both of us).  But with Moi gone for the last couple days, I guess Mway can’t contain herself.

State of the Path:  It’s cold and breezy enough for my snow suit today.  The chickens are standing at the door of their cage, anxious to be let out.  Hear birds chirping, but not as much as on a warmer day.  The starlings are not flocking in as large numbers; they seem to have dispersed, or moved on, or whatever they do.  Down by the creek, the breeze blows up a dead leaf in my face – at first I’m startled, thinking this is a bird flying at me.   Down at the oaks, I start looking up in the trees for my red headed friend.  At first I don’t see him, but then I spot him in the second oak on the other side of the creek.  He flits from branch to branch, then flies over to the other oak, and I have a fairly good view of him – I even see him take a few pecks at the branch he’s sitting on, and this bird definitely has a red head, unlike the similar bird I saw the other day, which only had red around its neck.  Before sitting down here at my computer, I’ve leafed again through our Audubon bird book – I am amazed to find, under the entry for “Red-bellied Woodpecker, a description corresponding to what I’ve been experiencing.  First, according to Audubon, the Red-bellied is “barred black and white above” – yes, this is what I’ve been seeing, not the “large white wing patch on each wing” of the Red-headed.  Then Audubon says the male has a red crown and nape, the female only has a red nape – whoa, so I’ve been seeing both the male and the female.  Audubon says the red patch on the lower abdomen is seldom visible in the field – well, that’s reassuring, because not seeing a red belly is why I haven’t been calling these birds “red-bellied.”  And Audubon’s description of its voice – “chuck-chuck-chuck, descending in pitch.  Also a loud, oft repeated churrrr” – is pretty much what I hear.  By the way, Audubon says the bird is common in the South, scarcer farther north – a statement that would dissuade me from shouting “Red-bellied,” if not for the other things the book says.  Coming back through the briars from the clearing (after our fetch), I see what I’m pretty sure is a chickadee in the sumacs.  I hope to hear it sing its be-bop lick, but no such luck.

State of the Creek:  With the rain we had last night, the creek is somewhat higher.  The stones where I stepped across to look at the skunk cabbage are covered.  More water is trickling into the creek from bug land.  Too cold today to hear the peepers.  Mud too gooey to walk by the skating pond.

The Fetch:  3 fetches.  Back in the house, I fill Mway’s dog dish, then go back outside to gather up 4 poop-speckled eggs, after scaring off the brooding hen, then let the entire flock out to free-range.  Their first destination: following my heels in the hopes of a hand-out.