Sustenance

The day was gray in a good way–no shadows to distract or sun to blind.  And it was chilly–only reaching into the 30’s after our week of 50’s and 60’s.  The wind was blowing strong enough from the north to put a nasty windchill on those thirty degrees.  From my living room window, I caught sight of a woodpecker on the side of a maple tree.  He had already done his work of drilling holes in a horizontal line into the cambium layer, and the trunk of the tree was dark and wet with the flowing sap.  The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was a handsome male with a red crown and throat and a black and white streaked face.  The ‘yellow belly’ was actually just a faint yellow stripe running down from his shoulders into his chest.  The rest of his feathers were mottled black and white.

I pulled out the tattered green-bound Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds to find out more about him.  Another good source for bird identification and information is The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  It has great pictures, audio of calls, and video of some species.  I found out that sapsuckers have a specialized brush-like tongue to lap up the sap and will also eat insects that are attracted to the sap.

Our Yellow-bellied Sapsucker spent most of the afternoon hitching himself around the tree from one set of holes to another.  He would dip his beak into one drilled hole then turn his head to the next one, drinking in the sweet sustenance.  Occasionally a squirrel would come by, and he would shyly fly away.  But he returned again and again to the maple tree and its nourishment.  At times he would tranquilly hang on the bark with his head tipped back looking plump and content.

Sustenance–food, provisions, something that gives support, endurance or strength.  We may not have names that describe where our sustenance comes from like the little Sapsucker, and we may not give it much thought beyond the grocery list and the daily rush of getting supper on the table.  Perhaps we all need to quiet our movement, tip our heads back, breathe deeply, and contemplate what gives us strength when we are weak, what supports us when we need help, and what sustains us when we lose hope.  So, at the end of the day, what gives you sustanance?