TWO pileated woodpeckers.
Unfortunately, my camera didn’t have batteries in it, and no one else could find a digital camera that worked either. So I will describe them.
Stidkid and I were bringing in some boxes that had been under a tarp in the backyard, when he stopped and looked quizzically at me.
“Can you hear that? What is it?” he asked, cocking his head.
“Either flickers or woodpeckers looking for bugs,” I replied.
Sure enough. There they were. Two of them. Large as … well, life! At least eighteen inches top to tail, probably more. We couldn’t get very close.
One was more brilliantly colored, so I think we had a male-female pair, or at least a mother-adolescent pair. The slightly larger, more brilliantly colored one flew off when we moved a little closer, but the other stayed on the snag they were working on. I think it used to be an alder. The snag is about 20 feet tall, mostly debarked already, and back in the woody area behind the large hazelnut.
The birds were working on it for quite some time, and as they hit and pecked, chunks of wood flew out, catching the sunlight that streamed down periodically. There are now large gouges and what may eventually be small homes for other birds all around the trunk.
Two pileated woodpeckers… black and gray and white, with reddish-orange crests. Had they held still it would have been difficult to see them among the shadows and dapples of the woods. But between the soft thumping sounds of their drumming and the quick, darting movements as they moved around the tree trunk or flew between tall firs, they were easy to find.
What a wonderful world we live in!
For more info about this bird, seeCornell University’s Birding Website. The link will open a new window.
Leave a Reply