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Woodpecker on Tribune Tower

Woodpecker on Tribune Tower (1)

While at work on the 14th floor of the Tribune Tower our copywriter spotted a woodpecker outside our windows! The little birdie was just hanging onto the outside of the wall. So I carefully walked over and snapped some photos. He was quite the photogenic bird, not flying away even when we opened the blinds.

While shooting our happy (yet confused) bird, I climbed on top of the heater to take some really close shots. But then I wasn’t watching where my feet were I fell through the heating vent! Luckily only about half my leg went through. And the woodpecker still didn’t fly away! As I continued to take more photos, he got fed up with me and moved away thinking, “what a silly man.”

According to the Animal Totem:

When a Woodpecker totem enters your life,
it indicates that the foundation is there and it is safe to follow through.
It will stimulate new rhythms.
It reflects a wakening of new mental faculties.
You may be so wrapped up in mental and spiritual activities
that you’ve neglected the physical.
Listen to your body’s rhythms and sounds and heed what it is telling you.

Yeah, I guess I was too wrapped up in taking photos, because I neglected the physical location of my foot! 🙂

Woodpecker on Tribune Tower (2)

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23 Comments
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unlikelymoose
19 years ago

Wouldn’t it be cool if the Tribune Tower were made of wood? That woodpecker would be alot happier. Perhaps this woodpecker comes from a lineage of downtown woodpeckers dating back before the Chicago Fire. That’s one tough woodpecker.

Tom Saaristo
19 years ago

Holy moly! I hope you’re alright! We had a woodpecker in our yard for a couple of springs when I was growing up. They are really annoying!

unlikelymoose
19 years ago

i bet woodpeckers aren’t as annoying as wind chimes. My neighbor has a windchime in the front and back yard. I’d take any sort of sound of nature over the sound of white trash any day.

Leigh Hanlon
19 years ago

Next to Sniffles, Woody Woodpecker is my least favorite cartoon character.

Leigh Hanlon
19 years ago

Uh, make that Woody Woodpecker. I’d pay for a DVD of the seldom-seen non-PC classic “Sweet Woody Peckerwood’s Badbeak Song,” though.

Anonymous
Anonymous
19 years ago

That’s a yellow-bellied sapsucker (yes, in the woodpecker family). Nice!

Lisa Schryver
19 years ago

Oh, good call, Ferdy! At first we were thinking it was a downy woodpecker (a few similarities to the yellow-bellied sapsucker), but you are absolutely right! We were all so excited to see something other than a pigeon or seagull that we oohed and ahhed over iit for a while. We urbanites are easily amused!

Anonymous
Anonymous
19 years ago

Downy is usually a good call because they are so common. But this one has a lot more red on the head than a downy or a hairy. I went birding this weekend at the Skokie Lagoons and spotted a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers. They are very cool, too.

unlikelymoose
19 years ago

a yellow-bellied sapsucker. cool. It’s neat to know exactly what kind of bird that is. Every once in a while I get some intreresting creatures in my back yard and it’s fun to look up exactly what they are.

Lisa Schryver
19 years ago

I kind of wish he’d come back. I miss having something to look out my window at other than stone buildings! P.S. Did I mention we named him Freddie?