Another Nice Walk in the Woods

 

I saw two wonderful things while walking in a mature hardwood forest in central NJ this week. The big pileated woodpecker pictured above was calling loudly and pecking insects off a fallen log. Pileated woodpeckers can be about 20 inches long with a wingspan of more than two feet! It was one big woodpecker! Click to enlarge. 

Then this! It's a jack-in-the-pulpit. A shade specialist and very exciting to stumble across.  

From a 19th century poem by Clara Smith: 

"Jack-in-the-pulpit preaches today,

under the green trees just over the way."