picoides (from picus, a woodpecker, and eidos, appearance) pubescens (with hairs of puberty)
Tuesday, June 26, 1979 — 12:15 pm
Highland Park, Illinois — residential area
I was on my roofing job. I had just returned from the lunch break during which I spotted my lifer Red-headed Woodpecker. The house we were roofing was in a heavily-wooded residential area with a deep, heavily-wooded ravine, about 200 yards across, immediately behind the house.
The Downy Woodpeckers were foraging in a tree right at the edge of the ravine. After picking at the branches for a short time, they flew down into the ravine out of my sight.