a tangent

 This post is a small side trip away from an tigin and to New Gloucester.  I've lived in my house in New Gloucester for 8 years.  For many of those years I had a pair of nesting yellow-bellied sapsuckers who chose a tree near my bedroom window to nest in. Each spring I could count on waking up to screaming yellow-bellied sapsucker chicks wanting to be fed. I spent many contemplative hours watching the harried parents frantically flying back and forth getting food and feeding the chicks.  Because I usually visit my mother around the 4th of July, I missed watching the chicks fledge for most of the years that they nested in that tree.  However, one year I missed the 4th of July family picnic and was in New Gloucester to see the babies emerge.  The past few years, the yellow-bellied sap suckers have found a new spot to nest. Martin is planning on taking down the old tree that they used to nest in, so there is no possibility of their returning to it for a home.  In spite of not being closely connected to the chicks and their growth, I have enjoyed hearing the sap suckers call while I am out gardening and doing yard work.

This spring one of the yellow-bellied sapsuckers decided that Martin's trailer (I know it is ugly, but he got it for cheap and it has come in handy with hauling all of that junk out of an tigin) was a great place to peck. I've heard that woodpeckers peck in the spring to attract a mate.  One of the schools I used to work at had a woodpecker that used to regularly, in the spring, peck a metal lamp post for days on end. I have also heard that woodpeckers peck to establish their territory.  This yellow-bellied sapsucker decided that the sound of Martin's trailer was the one he wanted. We heard him one weekend and because of the way it sounded thought he was pecking on something metal. We got the binoculars out and checked the utility pole across the street, but then spotted it on the trailer.  The sound echoed magnificently.  The bird had positioned itself opposite a metal support post and since it was inside the trailer, the sound was naturally amplified.

We have woken up to the yellow-bellied sap sucker tapping out a tune every morning since.  More info on yellow-bellied sapsuckers