[not so] wordless wednesday...

I've been meaning to post these for over a month, but time keeps flying by. anyway.

There are those days when a walk in the woods is quiet, with the birds keeping high to the treetops, spring flowers gone and fall fungi not yet poking out. The late afternoon sunlight ripples gently through the leaves on a light breeze, and your feet crunch the old dry leaves underfoot as you walk, softly. The forest is keeping most of the treasures to herself some days, but rewards you with a pause where you feel like the only thing for miles.

And then you meander home, out of the woods and back down the street. And into your driveway, where glistening black feathers catch your eye. A pileated woodpecker, murmuring gently to itself as it works its way up a tree trunk. And then a second one, flitting in beside it. A mating pair, you think. but then the male, his crown and mustache a rich dark red, does something you hadn't expected. He leans in to his companion, of equal size but with a paler - and spikier - hairdo, and shoves a beak full of bugs down its gullet. Aha! The dynamic has changed, and you smile as you sit witness to a father teaching its fledgling child, while still indulging it with meals it hasn't quite figured out how to get on its own. and you didn't even have to leave your own driveway.

Fittingly, I just heard the call of another pileated through the window as i sit here typing.

ETA: looking back through these shots I just noticed that while the adult's eye is yellow, the juvenile's is light blue. Interesting...

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p.s. the little beaver is in the shop.