At the edge of a cattail patch, this male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) was pecking away at the branches of a small tree, moving upward until he had reached the tip of the branch. For a short moment, he took a break from his work and turned his head to the side, which let me take a nice profile shot.
Perhaps he was searching for the next plant to peck, maybe the cattail in the distance.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Woodpeckers hunt grubs in trees, right? Maybe he was listening for the first rustling of wintered-over beetle grubs, hoping for his next meal.
I love woodpeckers but the closest Ive come in the wild is to finding a tree with holes in it when visiting a national park near Acadia.. perhapes I will have another chance one day to see the bird itself.
One of my fellow bloggers commented that what is ordinary for some is rare and unusual for others, because of geography. I think that is the case with the woodpeckers, which I see almost every time that I go out to shoot.