Peckerwoods
Today’s “excitement” involved a knock-down drag-out fight with my 401K login. Why? Because someone (not me) muffed the password. The GG does have login credentials for my 401K, which is okay except for the time he muffed the 2-factor auth number enough times that they locked “us” out and I had to CALL them to straighten it all out. I was STRONGLY LECTURED about letting “someone else” have access to my account. Um, it is the guy I’ve been married to for umpteen bazillion years and YES HE CAN HAVE ACCESS TO MY DAMN ACCOUNT! Jeebus.
Woodpeckers are much more interesting. Comments to yesterday’s bird blahg mentioned woodpeckers pecking on chimneys, etc. Well. I know about that, oh boy oh boy oh boy. Back in the day when the beach urchins were munchkins, for a couple of years (in season) a flicker decided it would be a good idea to peck on our METAL fireplace chimney. Every day. At 6:00 AM.
This sound reverberated throughout the entire Landfill, startling the heck out of anyone who wasn’t familiar with it and some of us who were. It scared the beejeezus outta the beach urchins until the GG trained a spotting scope on it and was able to convince them that the horrible metallic drilling sound was coming from a BIRD.
That was in an era when The Commander and Grandroobly would fairly frequently drive down to visit and shop, etc. They slept on a fold-out couch in the same room as the fireplace. The first time they visited during the Woodpecker Era, I warned them that they would be awakened by the bird at 6:00 the next morning. “Oh it won’t wake us up,” said The Comm. “Oh yes, moom, the woodpecker WILL WAKE YOU UP!” And it did.
I think there’s a (crappy) pic of that flicker somewhere but it is down in the dungeon in the mess of old film photographs and I’m not gonna knock myself out today. Instead you get this LOVERLY photo of seagulls taking off from the beach on Long Boat Key. I got this by sneaking up with my iPhone cam in burst mode. This was 2017 and burst mode was simply holding down the button (I think). Nowadays you have to slide right or left or whatever and I am not impressed.
P.S. Peckerwood was one of my old coot’s “pet” names for The Commander late in their lives. I can only guess how he came up with that one and why she tolerated it 🤣
February 13th, 2024 at 8:55 pm
I’ve locked myself out of accounts before which is why I have my gray password book. John disapproves of it since he wants me to embrace Bit Warden. 🙂 The flicker hasn’t been around lately; perhaps it’s wintering elsewhere? (hope it doesn’t return)
February 14th, 2024 at 10:10 am
I’ve read that those metal-banging flickers are calling mates or establishing territory by banging on metal. We have them here too. The metal they prefer is a drainpipe just outside our bedroom window. And yes, it’s often at 6 AM. I love my Merlin app. One day recently I sat on my deck, turned on Merlin, and waited to see how many different birds it picked up. Eight! All very common of course but it cheers me to know that there are so many different birds just outside my house. Including a tufted titmouse which I don’t see as often any longer. And about your Baltimore oriole from yesterday’s (?) post: I live 30 miles from Baltimore and rarely see a B oriole. Maybe they all went to Michigan. Oh! And I’ve been to Long Boat Key a thousand years ago and with a different, lesser husband and it looked exactly like your picture. Although in my memory those birds were pelicans. (And apropos of nothing, I was reading Jaws by Peter Benchley on that trip. Funny how my memory often can recall a book I was reading on a vacation and sometimes that’s the only thing I remember.)
February 15th, 2024 at 3:38 pm
The Long Boat Key birds are terns, but I’m not sure which type.