As most of you know, I live in Washington near Centralia but am
going to graduate school in Missouri right now. I'm leaving for
a week tomorrow--to go to a place where's no modem, so I'll be away
from the list (my daily dose of home) for a week.

This morning I had a major send-off from the birds here at my feeder
in Mid Missouri. You may not believe this: it seemed like an orchestrated
performance to me at the time. I heard a tapping at the window of my
second floor apt. When I went to check, I discovered a downy
woodpecker eating suet from the platform feeder. In the next
fifteen minutes, each staying only a minute or two, one after another just
as if they were taking their bows, these birds appeared:

two male titmice
a bright red male cardinal
several house finch
a dun colored female cardinal
two little gray birds I didn't recognize (maybe vireos)
a blue jay
a yellow shafted flicker

The flicker stood on the edge of the feeder for ten minutes (swear to
God), facing the yard just as if he were giving the farewell speech!!
When he left, I could see the downey woodpecker on the tree about
2 feet from the house--the rest of the audience had left I guess. :)
Also on that tree trunk was a gray squirrel... probably the real
reason the flicker just stood there.

I've set my subscription to nomail, so if you want to send me
a message, you'll have to use my email address: engds at showme.missouri.edu.
I'll miss you and the news from Washington...

Darlene Sybert VSA
Central Missouri
http://www.missouri.edu/~engds/index.html
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Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people
always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can
become great. -Mark Twain (Hannibal, Missouri)
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