The Morning Porch » flicker

A pileated woodpecker lands on the...

Dave Bonta — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:31:10 +0000

A pileated woodpecker lands on the dead elm right beside the flicker den hole and knocks twice. A flicker pokes her head out. He flies off.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:39:23 +0000

A muffled knocking from inside the dead elm. A flicker’s head pops out of a hole and flings a billful of wood chips into the sun.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:34:28 +0000

Thin fog. A flicker is excavating a den hole in the dead elm on the other side of the yard, his head almost disappearing into the tree.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:38:44 +0000

Two days before my friend from England arrives, my inner voice sounds like a tour guide: Those are flickers. Hear how they croon their name?

Dave Bonta — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:56:22 +0000

The sun glows faintly through the clouds like a coin at the bottom of a fountain. Three flickers bicker above the springhouse.

Dave Bonta — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:45:33 +0000

Morning full of the cries of woodpeckers—part ululation, part rusty hinge. Like the sounds the trees make in a winter wind, speeded up.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:07:06 +0000

The small cross of a plane against the blue, its distant drone. A flicker climbing the dead elm loses his footing on a patch of sunlight.