How to Eat a Walking Stick the Golden Fronted Woodpecker Way

Should insects ever become an important part of our diet, I have recently been privy to a demonstration of how an 8” Walking Stick is best tackled.  It was one of those “Thank you God” moments when I happened to look out a kitchen window at the right time and see a male, father I presume, offering this HUGE walking stick to his young son (the golden part of the males crest was already coming in).

First the father merely offered it to his charge; lots of “churrrss” from the young one but clearly not certain what he was supposed to do with this giant insect.  So the male, whap, whap, whapped it on the trunk of the tree and offered it again.  This time the fledgling put it in his beak while the dad held on to the other end and acted like it was getting the “juice” out.  Whap, whap again, more, not sucking, for they have no cheeks to do that, but whatever, opening and closing his bill on it to get the good insides and then, they repeated it again.  On the fourth offer the young one actually swallowed it; it was like watching a sword swallower!  Then, lots of beak wiping all around, more “yodelly” woodpecker calls and off they flew to another tree.  Lucky me, to see that!

I have written about the walking sticks before.  That very first spring in TX they were all over my porch and deck, hanging motionless in corners.  They look like they would make great predators but they are plant eaters and presumably the camouflage that is amazing IF they are on a tree, is to keep that little woodpecker breakfast interlude from happening. 

Here though, they have a propensity to hang out on my stucco walls.  “I can see you, you know.”  And so can everything else, easy pickings for these large woodpeckers.  The first spring they were everywhere, doing things that would make me shout, “Get a room!”  Second spring, hardly any, teaching me that, in Texas, just because you see it one year, doesn’t mean you will the next.  The vagaries of rain must be the reason.  Now, this spring, they are back, not as superabundantly as the first year but enough that they give me a start when I am hanging clothes and one is making like a clothesline.  Or walking on the porch roof to wash windows, finding a pair on the wall next to the window I was washing that only chose to move sloth-like away from me when the spray was getting too close.  Didn’t want to blow their cover as sticks by dashing away I guess.

It is a great moment, when you come upon an act of nature, in the act.  With my house confinement while the bone heals I hope to be ringside for many more such “on of a kind” encounters.  It is the silver lining to my broken tibia.  Not only more time to look, but: time to listen in on Animal Behavior classes from MIT, write this blog, see if I could ever sort out which anole is which and other things you are bound to hear about in the coming weeks.

Hoping your eye catches something too that makes you realize the gift of having ring-side seating for some little bit of life happening all around you.