Yesterday morning, as I walked through our park’s sewing room, I heard an extremely loud hammering sound. It startled me at first, and then I thought that the maintenance guys must be repairing something on the outside of that wall of the building. I seriously thought it was them, hammering nails into the wall under the sewing room windows.

When I looked up, I saw this Golden-fronted Woodpecker hovering at the window and tapping away at the window glass. It was so loud and so persistent that I thought he might break the glass.

I wondered how close I could get for a photo before he’d fly away. I was surprised that I could get right up to the glass and he didn’t seem to be worried about me. I’ve only just remembered this morning that all of the clubhouse windows are covered with privacy film, so he was unable to see me.

The unfortunate thing about the privacy film is that this gives the glass a mirror-like appearance on the outside. I’m positive that this woodpecker mistook his reflection as an intruder in his territory. It had to be that, because as I watched him, he was pecking at the glass only and kept frantically flying up and down the length of the window.

“Every bird, every tree, every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.”

Marty Rubin