The usual case for advancing in a hobby is the fact that things that you once found difficult become easier. This, I believe, is true for birding for the most part, but in the case of the downy woodpecker as the years go by I see less and less of them. It was the very first woodpecker I ever seen, and (once upon a time) one of my more exciting lifers. I used to see it so often that I wouldn't even look at them whenever they popped up on my radar. But now, I dont think I have seen one in at least two years.

Perhaps the cause of this is because I was seeing the same one over and over again. I remember when I lived on the dorms of OU's campus, there was this little one that would hang out in the big oaks of the south oval, and when my classes let out (or if I was walking to work or something) I could easily sit by one of the big old trees and see this little guy climb upside down to my hearts content. They look like like the hairy woodpecker - but just a bit smaller with a thinner beak.

Anyways, this made me reflect on the "timeline" of my birding adventure as a whole. When I first began, I was eager and excited to see any bird out there and figure out what it was. In the middling part (maybe a year or two in) I began to not really care for those everyday birds, only seeking out those new lifers or the bright and special ones. And now I have circled back to appreciating the old ones that werent as exciting to me in terms of "new" but are still special all the same. I'll write a letter to them now:

I miss u, sorry i didn't appreciate u like u deserved... xoxo, P4tchy

The pileated woodpecker is a very special birdie to me because it reminds me of the time I went to Universal Studios. Me and my sister were letting our other two younger siblings do whatever they wanted in the barney area while we were free to roam toontown. For some reason nobody was there, so we rode the woody woodpecker ride over and over and over again without ever waiting in line. I'm pretty sure that the ride operator hated us by the end of it.

For some reason I found this bird hard to find. I don't live in an especially rural part of Oklahoma anymore, and they're not fond of highways, I don't think, so it was nice to have a good long view of them when I was camping. Like every woodpecker, you hear it before you see it, but what a sight it was.

I'm trying to keep these posts shorter - so I'll leave it there.

Birding, for me, is a solitary hobby for me most of the time. Most of the times that I have invited other people to sleuth with me through the trails and trees, it turns into more of a hike than a true birding expierence - and that is because 1: nobody wants to crouch in the bushes watching birds for extended periods of time, or 2: talking loud = no birds. Not that its a bad expierence! I love hiking! Now, I took my little sister birding at a park with some older growth trees (older than other parts of our hometown) and we were able to catch some woodpeckers! These are some of the most fun birds I like to watch because it is so cool to look for their little holes they leave behind and watch them climb upside down!

Shoutout Chloe!

The northern flicker is one of my most favorite birds, only beaten out by the brown thrasher by a slight margin. This is indeed a woodpecker - though its behavior is much different than any other bird in this category. All of the other woodpeckers here use their beaks to "peck" at wood, gleaming for insects; the flicker on the other hand, is a ground forager, and only uses its beak to make noise and build its nest out of rotting wood. Make noise... I think it is called drumming when woodpeckers do it.

I think these guys are particularly beautiful for their spotted bellies and a striking black spot on their chest. They are also known for the flash of color on their underwing, either yellow or red. I personally have only seen yellow-shafted kind in Oklahoma, the red-shafted types are more common in the western United States, past Colorado.

I think these guys have a very distinct call that is easy to identify for beginner birders. It sounds like a crisp "kleer". If you have ever played the game Super Mario Galaxy, it is similar to the sound of shooting star crystals. And once you are able to id this call you will see how common this bird is in even slightly wooded areas around Oklahoma.

edit: I have seen the red-shafted kind when I was in Oregon... so there!

The red headed woodpecker is a little more uncommon than the red-bellied variety. It lives in the same environment, but I secretly think that it stays further from people than the red-bellied variety. They kind of look like magpies to me with their large color blocking of black and white on the wings. Their head is a darker red than I have ever seen on any bird before. Refrence the other bird pictures on this page and you will see what I mean.

I was driving in Grove with my buddy as we had just come back from a trip to a creek around there. We were driving pretty slow because we were in a rural neighborhood with a kind of shitty road. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this bird (as a birder I am ALWAYS watching) landing on the bark of a tree nearby. I got so excited that I yelled for my friend to stop the car and I jumped out of the vehicle to get a better look. Well worth the potential of injury in my opinion.