The San Bushmen call the Woodpecker (my favorite bird) Zana, they told me that when the Zana calls, it is telling them that someone will soon visit them and indeed each time this happened they pointed it out to me and soon afterwards someone did visit us.
This got me thinking just the other day. I remember as a young boy in boarding school I saw my first ever woodpecker on the school lawn, it was the Green Woodpecker and from that point on I became interested in birds. However when I left school I no longer pursued my interest, that is not until I had joined the army and was posted to Germany.
One day I was out birding near to my house when I encountered my very first Black Woodpecker a magnificent bird, simple in colour but quite powerful in it's presence and has become my number one bird. Once again my interest in birds was fired up and it has been the case ever since, going from strength to strength.
I often see the Woodpecker as a spiritual bird with it's undulating flight, reminding me of how life can be with it's ups and downs and sometimes just before alighting on a tree, it changes its course at the last minute to land on a different tree, and this is how it has been for me in life often changing course at the last minute and then experiencing a new and amazing journey, for example when I was leaving the army I was going to live in Germany where my children were, but at the last minute while serving in Bosnia I changed my mind at that time for some unknown reason and to every ones dismay, I decided to return to the UK.
And I can tell you I have no regrets, my life has been as colourful now as it was then but in quite a different way.
So maybe that visitor all them years ago and again in Germany that the Zana had warned me off, maybe that was my creator.
In fact I am very sure of that.
Picture: Cardinal Woodpecker
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