As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had a harder time waking up at the right time after the change to Daylight Savings Time (though I very much appreciate the extra light in the evening!).  Luckily, at least one member of the local avian community seems to have my interests at heart.  This has been my wake-up call for most of the last week:

 

A Northern Flicker takes up his post in the aluminum gutter right outside my bedroom window and announces his presence to the community of lady Flickers, alternating between drumming on the gutter and vocalizing.  In most woodpeckers, drumming serves the same role that singing does in other birds — announcing and defending territory and attracting mates.  The rapid staccato of a woodpecker’s drumming is very different from the irregular tapping they employ when digging for food or excavating a nest hole.

 

For all his forwardness in determining my waking time, he has proven rather camera-shy, and I only managed to photograph him in the act today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of all our local woodpecker species, flickers seem to have adapted best to the communicative opportunities available in the built environment.  Just near my house, I have seen/heard them drumming on the metal housings of street lights and large metal poles in addition to my gutters.  A friend of mine has reported Pileated Woodpeckers doing significant damage to wooden garage doors, but I think this was more about the carpenter ants living in the wood rather than the acoustical properties of the doors.