The flickers are here. Even if you haven’t seen one yet this fall, nor consciously absorbed the fact of their arrival, I would be surprised if the physical phenomenon of their loud and ringing calls ...

“The red-shafted flicker is so well-known that any detailed description of its plumage or habits seems superfluous,” wrote Willard Ayres Eliot in his 1923 book, “Birds of the Pacific Coast.” And so it ...