Flicker!

It's been a good week for birds here. Yesterday morning there was a cardinal sitting on top of a bare tree - bright against a deep blue sky and singing his heart out. Mockingbirds are plentiful, and so are juncos - the little dark gray birds all over the snow when it was here, and the frost in the morning. I've seen a flash of blue jay, but only a flash. There's a pair of mallards on the pond - I don't know where they went when it was iced over, but they're back now. And yesterday five geese stopped over for a rest on their way to wherever they go in February - I suppose they must be on their way to their summer home?

But this morning I saw a new bird - a flicker, right in the front of the building, near the remnants of the snowman. He screeched before he took flight, and again from the tree he went to - and he was answered from another tree on the other side of the entrance walkway. It's a remarkably creaky cry, loud and raspy. I don't know if this pair is passing through or planning to stay - the latter, I hope.