what's the buzz?

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The first French settlers in Louisiana called it “Pique-bois jaune.” (I think that means something like lance-wooden yellow. N'est-ce pas?)

And early American naturalists simply called it “Golden-winged.”

Today we know it as the Northern flicker, the one woodpecker in the east with a golden hue. Black, white and red is the norm.

A pair of flickers raised a family in a tree near my home on Chapman Ridge this past spring. The nest hole was 20 to 30 feet above the ground. I saw them come and go occasionally but didn’t get to spend much time watching them. The tree was basically branchless, so sneaking a peak would have been difficult.

According to Donald Kroodsma author of “The Singing Life of Birds,” a clutch of flicker nestlings make a buzzing noise that sounds like a swarm of bees to scare away would-be predators. Bees. That would work. A marauding raccoon reaching inside the nest cavity to plunder a chick would probably reexamine his appetite, maybe opt for a green-leafy salad instead or perhaps a bacon and cheese quiche.

Growing up in the mountains, my dad was a beekeeper so I know the buzzing sound. It's pretty frightening, even if you are wearing an apiculturist's veil.

–Thanks, Karen Sue.

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