Burial Detail Okay, I know this is April Fools Day, but this is weird and true. Can Mother Nature play April Fools pranks? If she can, she got me. Check out what just happened to me. So, let first go back to yesterday afternoon. I was returning home after walking the dogs, and I saw this Red-bellied Woodpecker flopping in the grass of our neighbors front yard. I suspect it was hit by a car, but nothing was broken, so I kept it overnight, thinking I would take it to the Raptor Trust today if it survived the night. Well, it didnt live to see the morning. To parody A Christmas Carol, The woodpecker was dead: to begin with...as dead as a door-nail...this must be distinctly understood. I had on my hands a stiff-as-a-board, cold, eyes-sunken-in-and-dried-out woodpecker. Got the picture, right? Hmmm...well, I dug the hole and placed him at the bottom. With the first shovel full of dirt that fell on him, he chirped. I thought I was hearing things - like maybe the shovel hit a rock - so I continued shoveling. But then he chirped again with the next shovel full. Whaaaat?! Now, we all know dead, and this bird was, as in the Monty Python parrot skit, a late woodpecker. This bird was no more! Still, this situation was just so freaky that I had to unearth him, just to check what the heck was going on. It gets better! When I picked him up, he chirped again! Was he alive...perhaps pining for the fjords (another Monty Python reference)? No...dead. Now, remain calm. This has not morphed into Stephen Kings Pet Cemetery, nor is it a harbinger of a zombie apocalypse. In reality, heres my explanation. There must have been air in the birds lungs, and with each compression or squeeze, it forced the trapped air out over the woodpeckers vocal chords, which produced a chirp. Thats my hypothesis, and Im sticking with it. I mean, its either that, or he was saying thank you, and I already have enough paranormal stuff in my life that I dont need paranormal birds, too. That would be, well, more unusual than a mime talking. Freaky!!!
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:25:14 +0000