What A Cute Little Pecker!

Oh, you thought this was going to be a naughty post, didn’t you?

Nope, not advertising Cialis or Viagra or ways to make yourself more manly… just wanted to share a fun experience I had the other day.

Isn’t he cute?

I was out for my morning walk when I found this baby red-headed woodpecker lying on the sidewalk right in front of me. He eyed me curiously but didn’t try to get away, and that’s when I noticed one of his wings didn’t look so good.

I could’ve left him there to be stepped on, eaten by one of our many neighborhood cats or swallowed by a black snake (we have a lot of those, too), and I’m sure that’s what many people would’ve done, under the mistaken belief that once you touch a baby bird its Mama will reject it because she’ll smell the humans on it. That's an old wive’s tale, as birds have a poorly developed sense of smell. And just how was the Mama Bird gonna manage getting Baby back up in the tree when the little guy obviously couldn’t fly?

So I picked up the little red-headed fledgling, tucked him into my shirt to keep him warm and took him home. I spent a good part of the day digging worms and listening to him sqwawk – no problem with his lungs, apparently. He was adorable.

But, in the end, I called a local Wildlife Rescue agency and they offered free veterinary care for his little wing if I turned him over to them, so I did.

I miss the little guy, but as several of my friends pointed out, for a brief time I could proudly defy my own gender, and claim my very own 'Woody'. :-)