Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus

The Northern Flicker, an Almanac

• The parish register of the old glebe lists the Northern Flicker twice, which is a tale in itself.
• The Northern Flicker keeps its own counsel, and the notch keeps the Northern Flicker's.
• Some reckon a nest of it under the eaves keeps the house from a death in the spring.
• The naturalist Wormsley classed it among the lunar-governed fowl, noting that its cry proceeds from a surfeit of yellow bile.
• There's them that swear a feather of it carried to Merrow Fen and back keeps your seed corn safe another year.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.