House Hunting

This morning I watched a male *Pileated Woodpecker do a thorough inspection of the nest box Phil built several years ago. It's never had a tenant, but hope springs eternal! 

In the extra, you can see some of the marks this woodpecker has made with his sharp beak on another side of the bird house, looking for insects, as it does on trees -- or perhaps drumming (a burst of 10 to 30 taps in less than a second) to indicate its territory.

I'm almost back to what passes for normal after a vigorous response (chills and deep fatigue) to my second (final) Pfizer vaccination last Saturday. Re-entry into the "real" world is going to be slow.

(*Wikipedia: "Pileated" refers to the bird's prominent red crest, from the Latin pileatus, meaning "capped".  )

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