We had a lot of fun looking up just before we left our home in Florida. There is a big ficus (a member of the banyan family) tree in front of screened lanai. I get great joy lying on the couch and looking up into its branches. This year was especially fun because the tree was given a MAJOR pruning to control root growth – they have huge invasive root systems. The tree was introduced to southern Florida to soak up the water so the land could be developed.

Mocking Bird singing songs to me.

The trimming made the tree look funny but it increased my ability to see birds that flew in.

A couple of blue jays making a lot of racket.

I would sit and work my crossword puzzle in the morning while I watched and listened for birds. When I saw one I grabbed my camera and quietly went out, standing under the almost bare limbs looking up, thru my lens, moving carefully around trying to get a good shot. I saw some woodpeckers, but they are harder to photograph because they are smaller, they are skittish, and they move so quickly.

For a period of time in February we heard a lot of pecking by a woodpecker. I would go out with my camera and look up. I moved around the sound trying to pinpoint where exactly it was coming from but there was nothing there. My ears could see something that didn’t exist.

One day I was looking up and realized where the noise was coming from. The woodpecker was inside a hole pecking out a nest.

Two-story nest?

Can you imagine the wear and tear on their tiny beaks from doing all that pounding. And the holes are so perfect – do they draw a circle with a compass? Then we began to see the mama and papa going in and out of the hole so we knew there were babies, or soon would be babies.

I think this is papa bird.

Just a couple of days before we left we could hear the babies chirping for food between visits from the new mom & dad. Jim even saw a little head peek out momentarily. I was hoping we would see them leave the nest before we left our nest but it didn’t happen. What fun we had watching all the bird activity by looking up into our bare tree.

I checked out some other entries and there are some good ones. Check them out for yourself at:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/weekly-photo-challenge-up-2/