The unusual woodpecker

I have written a few articles before about one of my aunts. She is eighty one years old and lives by herself. She lives in a small house in a quiet neighborhood. There are woods behind her home.

My aunt seems to have a way with birds and animals. At times even wild animals will come to her when they get used to her. She leaves food out for cats and birds. I'm not sure what she originally put bread out for. I need to check with her and find out. I know that many birds and animals will eat bread. I believe she tore it into small pieces and left it for birds, but I am not sure.

A lot of the birds and animals come around when she is on the outside. She is always quiet and doesn't move around fast when she moves so she does not scare them off. They have become use to her. She mainly just likes to watch them.

She had been seeing a woodpecker around and was paying no special attention to it one afternoon. She happened to look toward the house and saw the woodpecker pick up a small piece of the bread she had left out. It started hopping off. "Why is it hopping off with the bread?" she wondered.  Normally you would expect it to either eat it there or to fly off with it.

The bird hopped to the watering pan. "Now what?" was her thought. The woodpecker dropped the bread into the water. "Why would he do that?" was her question to herself.

It was explained quickly. The woodpecker picked up the wet bread and ate it.

This went on for a couple of weeks. One day she looked out the back door and there were two woodpeckers. The first one had bought his mate. Now two woodpeckers come up every day, pick up bread, carry it to the water, drop it in and then eat it