Woodpeckers’ Romance

 

This past spring I received a real gift of nature.  A pair of Redbellied Woodpeckers decided to make their nest in a maple tree at the edge of my yard. The best part of it all was that I could watch them from my easy chair in my living room.  I began shooting photos of them with my Nikon D-200 which has a 200mm zoom lens. Then I would use my photo tools on the computer to crop and enlarge the photos into the images you see in the poem. The story is told in my poem below. It was beautiful to see!!

Woodpeckers’ Romance

Redbellied woodpecker pecking on the tree

Making holes in the maple for his mate to see

She makes her choice and the work begins

Woodchips flying as they dig in

Deeper and deeper into the trunk

They carved and pecked for over a month

Bodies disappear deep into the tree

Now only their tails is all I can see

A cavernous hole a perfectly round circle

Ready to start nesting in those shadows of purple

Warming the eggs for a couple of weeks

Hatching out new babies all hairless and weak

Continuous food trips all day for a month

The new birds get stronger and ready for launch

Hanging around for a while in their cover

Then off to the woods starts the cycle all over

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Woodpecker Photos: Dwight L. Roth