Pileated Woodpecker

There were times in my life when I fell in love with men who were unreliable, unpredictable, and untamable.  In hindsight, I think that was part of the appeal.  These men enthralled me in those heady days when we believed that love could change people, just like it could change the world.  Call it naive, it still made for some damn good music.  It was, after all, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

And so it is with my pileated woodpecker.  He is unreliable, unpredictable, and definitely untamable.  And I am in love with him.  (Yes, it's a "him."  I looked it up.)

The myth is that Woody Woodpecker was fashioned after a pileated woodpecker.  The truth is that Walter Lantz and his wife were tormented by an acorn woodpecker on a vacation at a cabin in the woods.  Walter wanted to kill the bird, but his wife suggested he turn it into a cartoon.  The fact that Woody shares more characteristics with the crazy pileated woodpecker lent credence to the myth.  Either way, many homeowners have named their backyard woodpecker visitors "Woody" regardless of Woody Woodpecker's origins.

Not mine.  I call him Willie.  As in Willie "Roll-Me-Up-and-Smoke-Me-When-I-Die" Nelson.

I have several species of woodpecker who visit my backyard feeder, including the red-bellied, downy and hairy woodpeckers.  But none of them can enthrall me the way that pileated guy can.  He is compelling!  Just watching him skew his head from side to side . . . what attitude!  "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willie?"  Clearly, he is the King of his Domain!

Pileated woodpeckers like logs.  Well, duh.  I live in a log house.  They also like suet, and I make sure there is a fresh supply every day.  Better that he peck on the suet than on my house.

Willie, you are Crazy.  Always on My Mind.  And definitely, an Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.

If you had not have fallen,

then I would not have found you,
Angel flying too close to the ground!
And I patched up your broken wing

and hung around awhile,

tried to keep your spirits up

and your fever down.
I knew someday that you would fly away,

for love's the greatest healer to be found.
So leave me if you need to,
I will still remember
Angel flying too close to the ground!
Fly on, fly on past the speed of sound!
I'd rather see you up
than see you down.
Leave me if you need to,
I will still remember
Angel flying too close to the ground!