Woodworking

The swamps of Louisiana may harbor the elusive Ivory-billed woodpecker, and television may host the most annoying animated creature ever, but my pocket backyard is home to several Downy woodpeckers. That I'm able to help raise these wild animals fills me with glee. When I first spotted this juvenile a couple weeks ago, I wasn't even certain he was a woodpecker. There must not be much room for grooming in his parents' nest; he looked like a bedraggled victim of a cat attack. Now he's almost a respectable member of his species.