Delightful visitor

I had not been visited by one of the pileated woodpeckers for a while, but today this surprise guest posed for a number of photo opps. As you probably recognize, he is a pileated woodpecker, the largest of the woodpeckers in North America, and I can tell it is a male because of the red moustache. The female looks almost the same, but without the moustache. He lingered long enough that I could capture multiple poses, so I added two extras.

Today was dry, but very chilly. A new sign of spring this week was the lovely little hyacinth I spotted last evening when I was walking Mabel around the backyard. I really miss not being able to visit the Holden Arboretum to look for all the famliar signs of spring I have seen there in previous years, when covid-19 wasn't around, and I could enjoy trail walks in all our great parks.