Observation of woodsy area near bench

The ground is saturated with water and covered thickly in leaves.  There appears to be algae growing in the puddles along the pavement, and there is moss on many of the fallen logs.  Many of the trees are covered in pale, orange-brown leaves, though many of the trees are also bare.  There is a lot of vegetation on the ground, including soggy-looking grass that is mostly plastered to the mud; ivy, and other various plants.  The only trees nearby that have green leaves are the holly trees.  There is a surprising amount of chirping noises, considering the time of year.  I noticed several robins and woodpeckers, and I can hear what sounded like crows, though I haven't see any.  I first noticed the woodpeckers when I heard a nearby tapping noise, which at first I didn't recognize as a sound made by an animal, until I realized that it sounded too rhythmic to be caused by something else, such as something falling from trees.  The tapping noise didn't follow a constant frequency, but rather a pattern, which sounded not unlike a rhythm of a song.  By this point, I had concluded that there must be a woodpecker nearby, and I soon spotted the source of the noise sitting on a tree stump:

I can't be sure what the woodpecker was trying to accomplish by tapping on the tree stump, since woodpeckers are omnivorous and will eat many various foods such as insects, worms, berries, nuts, etc., and they will also use tapping noises as a form of communication.  I had also seen a woodpecker high up in a tree, where there were only thin branches, also making a rhythmic tapping noise, so it is possible that the woodpecker was using this as communication, especially since finding food in such thin branches seems unlikely.  Along with this, woodpeckers usually spend autumn gathering and storing food for the winter, so presumably they would not expect to be finding food at this time of year.
(source: http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Melanerpes_erythrocephalus/)

The only constant noises other than the birds chirping is the noise of the wind as it goes through the trees.  The wind is also very cold, and the sky is clouded over completely.  There are small mounds of snow scattered around the area, though most of it has melted; a likely cause of all the puddles.