Woodpeckers Poem by peter rodenby

Flash of flight
Woodpeckers have returned
I have seen them!
Last year a garden was favoured
Pecking nuts from a bird feeder
Fixed to bark
Enticing with home made fat packs
Suspended from strategic sites
Rustic arches
Bird tables
Washing lines
Eventually they came to our land
Winging over lawn.
Perched on a fledgling apple tree
Nibbling at the bounty
Away again
Flighty
A glimpse of identity
Red, black, white wing
Distinguished bird.
They are back
Preferring wind blown sycamores
Bare neglected trees by winter river
Shy, independent, accepting remoteness
No human contact or reliance
The independent woodpeckers.