Ladderback Woodpecker

Thank you everybody who sent consoling comments yesterday. I'm not able to reply to each one yet, but I have read them all and am very grateful. Anyone who has ever had a much loved pet knows how very difficult the decision can be. He was a very stoic dog, but the time had come when we felt that the quality of his life was so diminished that we were selfishly putting off doing the hardest thing. He truly was a member of the family and he will be terribly missed....

They are clearing the lot next door and while I was making coffee this morning I heard a sound like a detonation. While I was looking through what is left of our trees with my longest lens to see what it was, I caught this ladderback woodpecker on the plum tree. We have lots of different kinds of woodpeckers around here but most of them have not returned since the fire, and ladderbacks are quite rare anytime. It showed up among the burned leaves much better than the clouds of smaller birds which are coming in flocks and settle invisibly into the trees. They look just like leaves themselves.

I think the sound I heard was the giant long armed backhoe dropping a huge rock into a dump truck. They are still clearing brush and shrubs on the other lot above us. They were chipping huge piles of them today which is loud but also constant so that one can almost get used to it. I hope they take the chips away and don't just spray them on the fields, because piles of wood chips also burn like torches. We had a pile in our field that burned so hot it left a crater behind.

We made a quick foray out to purchase some Christmas presents, and only discovered that we have NO wrapping paper after we got home again. I may have to get creative with it this year. I'm really not a grinch and I love wrapped packages but I hate to see all the paper that goes into the trash. I also question the wisdom of putting wrapped packages (or ANY packages) under a tree that Spike might decide to pee on...

Joe Biden was chosen by the members of the electoral college today and has now been officially declared the President Elect.  The college is a holdover from the early days of the republic and a total anachronism today. It has rendered the 'one person, one vote' ideal of a democracy irrelevant and focused national elections on about five key states. It should be abandoned, but since it is part of the constitution that will be just about impossible. 

The other good news was that the first Covid19 vaccines were administered into the arms of a small number of essential workers today.It will take months to give them to everyone, as well as to convince the doubters to take it. Poor Anthony Fauci has an unenviable job, but at least he will have the full support of his boss who has announced he will declare a mask mandate.