It’s official, with the warm weather and the pseudo-legal roadside firework stands it is urban woodpecker season. To all bird enthusiasts, one can find this urban woodpecker wherever gun violence is rampant. To put it in context and for those who want to experience the woodpeckers in my area, I live a few blocks from the Detroit border (map: Alter Road being the dividing line) in the low rent district of an east side suburb where old money and tightwads live and play.

Late last night, I heard the the sounds of fireworks both of the legal and non-legal variety and I thought… there’s got to be an urban woodpecker out there. On a quiet night, sitting out on the front porch, one can hear the woodpeckers parry one another. Some woodpeckers have a rapid, say semi-automatic, sound while others don’t have a rhythm at all. The exchange usually doesn’t last very long, the sounds and lights of police cars chase them away. The rather murderous woodpecker strikes when there are loud distractions and often when the summer heat gets to people and aggressions run high. With the declining population of city dwellers, it’s becoming more difficult to experience an urban woodpecker.

A police substation has been built close by and to control the urban woodpecker population, a patrol now canvases the streets. Though I don’t care to see one up close, I am wistful to hear them ringing in summer, just the same way they ring in the new year.