One year ago, I aborted a visit to the Reed Bryan Farm side of Mercer Meadows because I wasn’t feeling right. My balance was off. Later that day I fell at home and had difficulty walking after that. I ended up hospitalized for a bit, missed two and a half months of work and spent a couple of months walking with a cane.
I’m fully recovered, thank goodness. To celebrate one year of passage*, I headed out to Reed Bryan Farm this morning, hoping the birding gods might grant me a special gift — a lifer, maybe, or a great photo opportunity.
I found a typical assortment of birds, not counting three purple martins clustered in the same tree where I had spotted their kind once before, the only time I’ve seen them at either Reed Bryan or the neighboring Pole Farm. Photo opportunities were less than average, although I had caught a Northern flicker high up in a bare tree and hoped that might turn out alright.
As I looped back toward the parking lot, ahead of me on the trail I spotted a yellow and black feather, clearly something shed by a Northern flicker. I’m not one for omens or superstitions, but on this day, I figured I should treat the feather as that gift I was hoping for. I stopped for a selfie photo, and as I resumed walking I decided the feather was a prompt to realize that I truly was given a gift, the gift of good health.
When I got home and checked my photos, I could see that the flicker I had encountered was a female, with her yellow shafts clearly visible. I have no proof, of course, but I’d like to think she left that feather for me to find.
*I’ve since figured out that I was a day early for the anniversary of that aborted visit, which was Monday, July 17, 2023. Leap Year threw me. Regardless, it’s a special day for me as I conclude the year that has passed.
The Jersey Birder 
I love the noise the northern Flicker makes. And they’re so loud!
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