An Open Letter to the Woodpecker Family

A memory of those halcyon days of sunshine and suet balls.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Woodpecker,

You may not have seen me around too much lately and I wanted to apologize to you and your family for failing to leave food out for you. I know this apology won't fill your belly (which must be rather large given the frequency with which you feed).

Though I have only had the opportunity to watch you from a distance briefly over the past month, it has become apparent that your visits have become less frequent. Your staying away seems to have coincided with my own failure to refill your suet feeder. For this indiscretion, I apologize.

While washing dishes today, I was excited to observe you (or maybe it was your child as it has been awhile) flitting from feeder to feeder looking for something to eat. I can't express how wonderful it was to see the Woodpecker family back in our yard!

The only excuse I have is a lame one. For the past few weeks, I have been preoccupied with teaching summer school when I could should have been maintaining the suet feeder in our backyard. (My wife would like to express her apologies, too.) Rest assured that with summer school over as of today, we will be heading right out to the bird store and fill up the suet feeder with those lovely peanut suet balls you and your family seem to love.

I look forward to seeing you again in the yard, soon. Best wishes,

Jean-Paul