le perroquet du vendredi 13

i was out on the balcony, taking a polaroid. i had been freezing for only a few seconds when i spotted a very colorful bird moving on the lawn. right under where i was. a little bigger than a pigeon. very green with a touch of flaming red. my first thought was "but, but, it looks like a parrot!". being so very red and very green...

i moved closer to the banister and made myself so sillily noticeable that it flew a little further away, showing a lovely bright yellow above its tail. it stayed in the grass for a while, giving me the eye. then chose to hide in a tree about 50 meters from where i stood, wondering what kind of bird it could be. (i had come to my senses and dropped the escaped-parrot-theory.)

after a few minutes, during which i ran for my camera and its unefficient lense for this kind of photography, it came back. i tried to capture it and obviously failed (~evidence below). the bird kept looking up to make sure i would not jump from the third floor, and finally decided to move a little, towards one of the small trees trying to grow in the lawn. as if it wanted me to make sure it wasn't exotic at all, it landed in this very special way, on the trunk and... pecked it.



later on i searched for a woodpecker in a book (~scan) and was made sure that i had indeed met one (~middle, right). i felt very silly (parrot-wise), lucky (in this urban environment) and happy. this was my first encounter with a lady woodpecker.