NATURE TIME

[spatch]

The Downy Woodpecker: Nature's Little Alarm Clock

Shown: A downy woodpecker in its natural habitat; some nature website.
Not Shown: The little feller who decided to go to work on the top corner eaves this morning. He flew off when I opened the kitchen window. He hopped around on a branch nearby all indignant and went back to work while I went for the camera.

We made eye contact when I leaned out the open window. He gave a disgruntled cheep then flew off, and has not been back since which is a shame since now I have my camera all ready. If he does come back though maybe I ought to let the cat make eye contact next. Not that the cat can reach him or anything. But someone apparently needs to know who's boss around here. RECOGNIZE THIS, LIL FELLA? IT'S A PREDATORY SHAPE! (Meanwhile, Mr. 20 Pound Throw Rug will squirm uncomfortably in my arms and decide he wants to be doing anything else at the moment.)

It might be a hairy woodpecker. It could be. I didn't get a good beak-to-head ratio which is one of the differences between the two that Mr. Nature Website told me about. It's just as well, because I ain't about to go typing "hairy woodpecker" into GIS all willy-nilly.

Comments

[jotasbrane.livejournal.com]

I found this morning that in my area, nature's alarm clock is apparently the Cat. Not only does she wake you up around 4:30 in the morning by jumping onto your chest while you're asleep, she also comes equipped with a snooze alarm which enables her to continue to repeatedly do this every 5-10 minutes until you're finally wide awake enough that you get up chase her around the bedroom so that you can bodily remove her and close the door.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

At which point, if your cat is anything like mine was, it will mewl piteously until you want to kill it....

[jotasbrane.livejournal.com]

Apparently, she was just sitting patiently outside the door. As I discovered after lying in bed wide awake for several minutes and realizing that I now needed to pee. At which point, she had the gall to follow me into the bathroom and purr at me! Grr...