Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I stuck my nose ( and camera) out briefly and as luck would have it, this handsome fellow landed in the maple that has lost all its leaves.  Fortunately, the tree behind has not.  I managed to crop most of the extraneous twigs out.

Our governor has introduced more restrictions as the number of Covid cases has been rising here in Maryland for the past two weeks,  reaching over 2000 yesterday (for one day).  Since last spring we had managed to keep it between 500-700 new cases per day, but just like the rest of the country, cases are exploding.  In other states where the governors were reluctant to put any kind of restrictions on, they are finally mandating masks and limiting the number of people who can gather indoors, but I fear it is far too little too late. There has been no coordinated effort and no leadership.  I am grateful that our governor has followed the data and the science and that most people in this state are compliant. However, 50 different states doing different things, some more stringent than others, is hardly the way to get this under control, especially at this stage.  

It is going to be a very difficult and sad winter.  At least there are some vaccines on the horizon.