Downy

Trail Wood #19.09 Earl Plato

Writer’s Note: In my little sketch pad I drew a Downy woodpecker. Later I colured it. Ed Teale mentions this little woodpecker in this march offering.
“ On this morning in the wake of the quiet storm, Nellie and I wade on a wandering course through the woods, along the brook, and across the fields, clad in immaculate white. We take our time. The sun shines. The day grows warmer. The calling of titmouse and redwing charges the air with the emotion of spring.
Twice on the way home we stop beside the stems of last year’s goldenrods. Ach stem exhibit’s a round,
balloonlike swelling has been punctured by the chisel bill of a downy woodpecker. On some cold day in winter, the bird had excavated the round bevelled hole and had extracted the pupa from within the sphere of the goldenrod gall.”