Woodpecker

When I leave this house there are several things I will miss.  I was reminded of one of those things early this morning.  Over many years I have heard the occasional loud, rapid drumming peck of a woodpecker who attacks the wood utility pole on my rooftop.  It only comes early in the morning.  A very small bird.

Actually I have no knowledge as to whether it has been the same woodpecker all these years.  We've never spoken.  And it is not there every day. But when I do hear a woodpecker it is always in the same spot pecking away.  Always facing east.  Having grown up in the era of the cartoon 'Woody Woodpecker' I was surprised how small a bird a real woodpecker is.  I was expecting they were as large as an owl.  That is not the case.

The bird has never done any major damage as far as I can see.  Just small holes pecked into that same wood utility pole.  There is a lot of wildlife out here in Suffolk County.  More than I remember observing when I lived in Nassau County.  Squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, moles, an occasional black garden snake.  And a variety of birds including cardinals, geese, bluebirds, robins, wild turkeys, seagulls - are all prevalent.  When I first moved east raccoons were a problem.  They attacked garbage cans at night, biting into the hard plastic covers to get at the garbage and spewing waste all over the street.  I am convinced they can chew through anything.  Then my neighbors and I changed our habit of putting garbage cans out by the curb the night before collection day.  Instead we got into the new habit of getting up earlier in the morning on collection day to move the garbage cans to the curb.  The raccoons started to disappear with this change in restaurant hours.  No regrets here.  I pay the mortgage, not the raccoons.

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