It is quite a daunting task to start a blog. What will I write about? More important, will anyone want to read it? I personally like to read articles about nature, I like to watch and discover what is going on around me in nature and I like to work in the garden, so that is what I am going to write about.

So from our home in New Gloucester, Maine. My wife (Cindy) and I run our business building bird houses and feeders. It has been a growing joy for us to watch the birds we attract to our yard, it is even more gratifying when the birds are feeding and nesting using the things we have made.

Just lately we have enjoyed a pair of Pileated woodpeckers, (Dryocopus pileatus) Cindy is running around trying to get video of one of the woodpeckers as it flies from tree to tree. This year in our limited travels we have heard or seen these fine birds in four different locations around the greater Portland Maine area. In a PETERSON FIELD GUIDE they are noted as uncommon, maybe they are making a come back. The Pileated woodpecker is an impressive bird, large with a beautiful red crest, it literally tears into trees to get at grubs, sometimes leaving large holes and a scattering of large wood chips. The holes they dig in their search for food may become homes for other birds, so I guess they are competitors in the bird house building business, welcome competitors I might add.