SYLACAUGA, Ala. – Bob Green had been looking forward to a day like today for years.
He often visits Sylacauga’s Marble City Cemetery, which officially opened in 1898 -– not just because he is a passionate about the history and a long-time member of the cemetery’s perpetual care committee, not to visit any of the more than 2,500 graves dating back to 1876, but because he’s long been fascinated by photographing unique birds he’s not spotted elsewhere in the area. Early this Thursday morning, he snapped this amazingly colorful photo of a red-headed woodpecker.
“I do not know if the red head lives in the cemetery or is just visiting,” Green told SylacaugaNews.com. “I have not seen him this year before today, although he or another Red Head has been in the cemetery for the last few years. This is the best photo I have ever been able to get.”
According to Cornell University’s AllAboutBirds.org, the red-headed woodpecker is “so boldly patterned it’s been called a ‘flying checkerboard,’ with an entirely crimson head, a snow-white body, and half white, half inky black wings.” The birds are also “adept at catching insects in the air, and they eat lots of acorns and beech nuts, often hiding away extra food in tree crevices.”
We must wonder if the bird noticed the attention.
