Spring Construction

A pair of flickers is making a nest cavity in the brush behind our house.

It’s hot out, but the female is working steadily, pausing periodically to call for her mate. (The picture above shows the male. The female doesn’t have the black streaks — Anna Botsford Comstock calls them “mustaches” — under her beak on each side.)

She’s quite beautiful. It’s one of the upsides to having dead trees that the birds can use them like this… even though sometimes it’s easier not to know. That way we aren’t as aware of the many difficulties they face: red squirrels, blue jays, Cooper’s hawks, snakes.

I wish them well!