Look for the Red Headed Bird

March 20, 2010.  Saturday.

Situation:  Moi has to go off and march in a parade and she wakes me up to tell me she doesn’t have time to take Mway for a morning walk, that I’ll have to do it.  She also tells me to let the chickens out around noon.   By the time I get around to taking Mway out, after having some coffee and checking my email, it’s around 9:45.

State of the Path:   Again, I appreciate the indirect sun of the morning, the coolness of the air.  See a rabbit running from the field into the old orchard.  Hear birds, but it seems that the starlings are no longer amassing in large numbers in the tree.  Don’t really see any birds until I’m down by the wigwams and see a male and female cardinal flying toward the hedgerow.  At the same time I hear Canadian geese – I look for some time before I see them in the distance passing over the top ridge, flying in their V formations.  Down by the creek I look again for the red headed bird I saw yesterday – I’ve checked the Audubon guide and I couldn’t find anything that looked like the bird I saw.  The picture of a redheaded woodpecker in the book, the closest contender, doesn’t really look like what I saw, with its black and white body in contrast to the gray body I saw.  As I approach the big tree on the other side of the creek, I do hear a bird, making the same scolding sound, “Cha cha cha cha,” followed by a rattling sound, that I’ve been hearing.  I finally see two birds perched high in the tree, but they are black like the ones I saw a couple days ago.  I think I see red on the wings, but I can’t be sure -- the birds are probably redwing blackbirds.  The tree, which I think is an oak, is the tallest one down by the creek, and as I’m staring up in it I finally notice that it has started to bud, the only buds that I have seen so far this year

State of the Creek:  The creek is running gently, much like yesterday.  There is water in the drainage area from bug land, but it is pretty much standing still.  I think about going by the skating pond to look for colt’s foot, but the foot holds I put in the banks of the feed channel yesterday look too mucky and slippery.

The Fetch:  Two fetches!   Although they’re carried out with vigor and enthusiasm, I’m surprised that this is all Mway does on what is manifestly her first walk of the day.  Of course, ultimately I don’t care.  Back in the house, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feed Mway – Moi didn’t say anything about this, so I just give Mway half a biscuit.

Addendum:  I take Mway out for a second walk around 4 pm, and I’m surprised Moi isn’t home yet, as we both have to work tonight.   I decide to go the reverse way on the path, starting out at the summer house and going down toward the strawberry patch first.  Sure enough, down at the creek, I see the red headed bird again, in the uppermost branches of the tall oak.  Whatever this bird is, it is definitely not a female cardinal.  If it were on the trunk of the tree, pecking at the wood, I could safely say it was a woodpecker.  As it is, I can only tentatively call it a woodpecker.  Up in the clearing, I see Moi driving in.  Mway does 5 fetches – that’s a total of 7 for the day.  Back in the house, I go to feed her but her dog food bin is empty.  Moi tells me to give her 15 biscuits instead.