Thursday, May 19, 2022

Lewis's Woodpecker Thursday

So yesterday afternoon I'm playing "patio chess" with my neighbor Steve from the next street over (but we're in my rec room because it's rainy) and between games I check my iPad for reports on the Lewis's Woodpecker.  One comes in just as I'm checking, so I read it aloud, "Bird now being seen further north in backyard at 2160 Jensen."  Steve exclaims, "2160 Jensen -- that's my house!".  So we stop playing chess and hurry over to his place.  Sure enough, I had "given him the bird".  And he's still got it this morning.

(By the way, it's hard to count how many bird-watchers have arrived to see this bird, but a conservative estimate as of this morning is 200.  The furthest was a guy from Whitefish Point who heard about it Monday evening and drove all night to see our woodpecker at first light Tuesday.  Others have been here from Indiana, the Detroit area, Saginaw, Flint, Kalamazoo, Manistee and (yawn) Grand Rapids.  It's the first sighting ever of this species in the lower peninsula.)

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