Mayapple

No hiking today due to rain.  I worked in the studio in the afternoon, and spent an hour on the tiny front porch to draw this Mayapple that is just coming up.  The tall, single leaf is about  8" high, the smaller pair of leaves only about 3".  The bud is there to remind us that the twin flowers of Mayapples will open later this month - they have six white petals and hang underneath the umbrella-like leaves.

The birds were very noisy today, chittering and singing throughout the woods as I worked with my studio door open.  Cardinals, Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Carolina Wrens, Titmice, and so many Goldfinches and Purple Finches.... and more!  A noisy Red Bellied Woodpecker called with loud kwirrs and cha's to tell me to come out of the studio and watch him.  Through the binoculars his crisp black and white barred back and red head was quite shocking against the gray trees and sky.  The diffuse light was just right to see his pale "red" belly (he is actually more pink-bellied than red-bellied).  I watched him feast on bugs in a tall White oak, in a section of trunk with many rows of holes made by yellow bellied sapsucker. Since the Red-bellied Woodpecker is known to store food in cracks and crevices of trees, I wondered if this guy has used some of those holes to cache food?