Meet Ms. Red-Bellied Woodpecker

It is spring break week, and so town and campus are more deserted than usual. And for once, we folks who didn't go anywhere got a real treat: for not just spring-like, but SUMMER-like, weather arrived just in time for this week!

I stopped at Millbrook Marsh first thing in the morning to check for birds, and I was not disappointed. I saw a pair of bluebirds (perhaps the same ones I saw there last week) and a whole bunch of red-winged blackbirds.

And as I was getting ready to leave the marsh, and started back up the wooden boardwalk, I saw what looked like the gray figure of a bird on a remote branch. Hmm, what could it be?

So I went in for a closer look: I super-zoomed my camera all the way out to discover that the bird was a red-bellied woodpecker, likely a female. Isn't she well dressed in her pretty herringbone jacket and colorful red cap?!

The soundtrack: the Andrews Sisters, with The Woodpecker Song, from 1940.