A hairy woodpecker bonked into the window of the visitor center. I heard the telltale "boomp" of the glass and knew immediately what the sound was. The pine siskins had been working in the tree and along the building picking up spiderwebs and parts of an old nest that fell out of the tree to build their own nest yesterday, and I assumed it was one of them. When I went to the window and looked down, I didn't see anything. Only when I looked up did I see the hairy woodpecker sitting in the tree with its eyes closed. Ouch. I took advantage of the situation and got some extraordinary pictures.
NPS photo by Nathan King
After a few minutes with me sitting there next to it, the woodpecker finally started cocking its head. I figured that was a good sign. Next time I went to check on it, it hopped to the other side of the three. Finally, it flew away, but not before bonking the window one more time for good measure. It flew into the cottonwood tree and resumed feeding and squeaking like nothing had happened.
The visitor center always has crickets hopping around. They never seem to go away. One of my childhood memories of the park were the crickets in the bottom of the urinals in the campground, weird as that is to remember. I was closing up the visitor center today, chasing the crickets around as usual when I saw something that didn't hop.
So there I was staring at a big, gloss black spider with a spherical abdomen high up in the air. It was pretty huge for a spider. "Well, hey, that's a black widow," I thought (yes, I said "Well, hey," in my head.) To be sure, I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and tried to flip it over as it went to scurry under the bookcase. I saw the flash of red on its underside. No mistaking that.
I scooped up the black widow with the paper and carried it to the back door. Luckily, it held still on the corner of the sheet as I walked it to the door. I was a little nervous about taking my eye off it while I unlocked the door. I released it to the wild. Maybe it will cut down on the crickets.
The visitor center always has crickets hopping around. They never seem to go away. One of my childhood memories of the park were the crickets in the bottom of the urinals in the campground, weird as that is to remember. I was closing up the visitor center today, chasing the crickets around as usual when I saw something that didn't hop.
So there I was staring at a big, gloss black spider with a spherical abdomen high up in the air. It was pretty huge for a spider. "Well, hey, that's a black widow," I thought (yes, I said "Well, hey," in my head.) To be sure, I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and tried to flip it over as it went to scurry under the bookcase. I saw the flash of red on its underside. No mistaking that.
I scooped up the black widow with the paper and carried it to the back door. Luckily, it held still on the corner of the sheet as I walked it to the door. I was a little nervous about taking my eye off it while I unlocked the door. I released it to the wild. Maybe it will cut down on the crickets.
