First Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the Fall

This afternoon after a brief heavy downpour of rain, I heard the mewing calls of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in trees around our next-door neighbor’s yard. The rain had stopped, but dark gray clouds remained, and water still dripped from trees all around, already drenched from two days of showery rain, as the remnants of Hurricane Delta moved through. 

The mewing calls continued for half an hour or more, soft and plaintive among the sounds of water dripping on wet leaves, calling to mind a water-color image of a Yellow-bellowed Sapsucker with its boldly striped black and white face and crimson throat and crown. I hoped it might come closer, but it never did. But it’s always nice to know, at this time of year, that one has returned. 

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