As mild weather reclaims the Front Range, the first tentative calls of norther flickers are echoing across our Littleton farm. Throughout February and March, these prolonged and hysterical calls, combined with intense drumming on dead limbs, downspouts and roof-top vents, will herald the onset of spring.
Such mating behavior is common throughout the animal kingdom but is generally not so obvious. Indeed, the noisy antics of these large woodpeckers is impossible to ignore.
Nevertheless, their calls and drumming are among the earliest signs of spring, heard long before the season of snow is over (especially here in Colorado). Though the flickers are responding to the lengthening daylight, their promise of warmer days, greenery and the glories of spring is welcomed by winter-weary humans.
