My routine continues as the weather is warming up. Perhaps we’ve seen the last of temperatures much below zero F. I looked at apples for a few hours this morning, then headed out to the orchard. In another week or so, I’ll quit doing firewood and focus on pruning the apple trees.
.“Pileated” monument, Wilmington MA
The highlight today was being serenaded by a Pileated Woodpecker much of the afternoon. (I love them almost as much as I love Macaws.) I will never forget the moment I saw my first Pileated on a bluff above Great Pond in Belgrade. I was with “Aunt Meb” who was actually not my aunt but the mother of my buddy, John Shaw. She was an avid birder, and she knew how much I wanted to see a Pileated Woodpecker. It was just the two of us out for a bird walk one summer afternoon, and there it was, high up in a pine tree. What a fantastic moment! I didn’t see the Pileated today. I was too busy with my own work. But I could hear her (or him) chipping out chunks of hemlock or pine not far away. We were both into our own woodworking projects. I love sharing the woods.
The famous apple, Baldwin, was first known as “Woodpecker” because the woodpeckers love to dig into the tree. Maybe Baldwin should have been named, Pileated?