Categories: Hazel Rosetta Smith,
The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and state wildlife laws classified woodpeckers as nongame migratory birds. They are protected by law and can only be removed by legal assistance.
Once the woodpecker selects a desirable spot, which could be your backyard, it is difficult to reverse its agenda or attempt to change its narrative. It will use its stiff tail feathers to prop itself securely against a tree or any leaning post and remain on the job until its agenda is resolved.
The bird’s sharp beak is used like a chisel. Drumming is the term used to describe the woodpecker’s speedy blows on any solid surface, wood, or metal. The hollowing sound is a determined action which alerts other birds that the woodpecker has put its claim of territorial right to drill a nest and attract a mate during the courtship ritual.
With some insight into the purpose driven lifestyle of the woodpecker, we may find some areas that are useful to our survival as well. We, too, need to strategize and set a plan of action.
Too often we begin with enthusiasm toward a project or business that looks plausible and possible and as soon as the plan involves more than we imagined, or the delay of success is more than our patience can manage, we let it go.
Sometimes, we are so fragmented in our plans that the focus needed cannot sustain the required maintenance. However, using the determined, resolute woodpecker, we must be about conscientious steps necessary to survive and thrive.
The woodpecker has one of the longest tongues amongst birds its size, measuring five to six inches covered with sticky hairs. The tongue is launched and retracted with great efficiency to snatch unsuspected insects.
It is unfair to harshly judge the woodpecker’s modem operandi. After all, like most of us, the bird does what it must do in a world that is not handing out favors.
Our tongue can travel distances also, so to speak, spewing and extracting what it needs.
As we think about the characteristics of the woodpecker, we should give thought to the part we play in poking holes in the lives of others as well as our own.
We should be the face of truth in the mirror that takes the time to observe eye to eye whether we are like unwanted, unsolicited woodpeckers poking holes in the dreams and goals of others and not checking out our attitudes and actions.
Be determined, be committed, but most of all be kind and considerate in sharing space for others to grow and prosper.
[Hazel Rosetta Smith is a journalist, playwright, and director of Help Somebody Theatrical Ministries, retired former Managing Editor & Woman’s Editor of the New York Beacon News. Contact: misshazel@twc.com and www.hazelrosettasmith.com]
