Recently I haven’t been seeing a lot of the usually ever present red bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus). I haven’t even been hearing them much. Until the last couple of days, that is. I’m pretty sure they have been holed up sitting on eggs, which are now hatching and the young are hollering to be fed. The majority of the birds I’ve seen in the last couple days have been males, and they have been very busy. Oftentimes these woodpeckers are kind of goofy and I really get a big kick out of them, but right now they are quite focused. This fellow was very intently hunting for insects in some nearby oak trees when he must have heard something. He stopped banging on the tree and stared into the woods. He remained like that for thirty or forty seconds and then returned to the hunt. I have no idea what he heard, but I did take advantage to get some shots of that focused gaze.