If you saw one of these woodpeckers you may blurt out something like that, too.

In the early days, birdwatchers were so taken back by the the size of this bird they just let it rip, “Good God,” The name stuck.

This bird is the Ivorybill Woodpecker. It is thought to be extinct for some time now.

The last time it was officially seen was 1944 in Louisiana.

During our continuing corona virus home confinement, I had the opportunity to get to know the birds who visit our birdfeeder for a snack and a bath. My daughter and I noticed the number of visiting woodpeckers in addition to the spring hatchlings of a variety of other feathered friends.

Birds of a feather really do flock together.

Birds are comfortable foraging together and traveling together for all of those migrating with the seasons.

Ivorybills do not migrate. They are quite happy settling into a familiar habitat for roosting and rearing a family. The Ivorybill is sociable, I understand.

For some time now my daughter has been telling me about seeing and hearing a woodpecker she calls Gargantuan. She names the really extraordinary ones. I had not seen this bird myself until a few weeks ago. And there it was, a really big woodpecker. It was pecking around a nearby pine for tree boring grubs. And, I declare, it had a light colored bill.

I could not believe my eyes, and still don’t. But it sure could have been. I told my family about the bird. None of

I told my family about the bird. None of them knew about the Ivorybill Woodpecker. I have sadly failed them with too few trips to the Congaree Swamp. It is a known Ivorybill habitat where it is rumored the Ivorybill lived many years ago.

This time my daughter saw it and was quite overjoyed. As it flew south toward the swamp I caught a flash of its black and white 30 inch wingspan. Has the woodpecker, be it pileated or Ivorybill, returned?

My daughter told me I was seeing things.

Its haunting call and deep tap, tap, tap reverberated on a hollow tree in the deep woods. Is that you my feathered Elvis?