This morning, I looked out my kitchen window, which faces our backyard
woods, and saw the following: A woodpecker was on the ground pecking-as if
looking for bugs- at a stump of a tree that was cut down in the fall. It
looked like a "woody woodpecker" (forgive me, can't remember the official
name)
woodpecker, which we have seen on occasion before, but this one was huge,
the red on its head was intense and, if I am correct, there was more white
in it than usual plus it was on the ground. Then, 2 crows came and chased
it away. The unusual aspects, for me anyway, were the sight of the bird
foraging on the ground, the very large size of the bird and perhaps the
coloring (I was too taken aback to zero in on any one feature) and then it
being
chased away by the crows. When I looked it up in my book because it seemed
somehow different from all the other woodpeckers I have seen (both with
round heads or crests), I almost believed it may have been an ivory billed
woodpecker, but based on its rarity & our location-Northern VA- that seemed
improbable. However, with the unseasonably warm weather we have been
having and the fact that the crows chased it away, which I have never seen them
do to any other birds in our backyard, I thought perhaps maybe I was not
just "seeing things." Is this indeed a possibility? Have there been any
other possible sightings?
Thank you,
Martha Wolpert
Kings Park West subdivision, Fairfax/Burke area, VA
