chapter 310

Woody Woodpecker

4/10/2013

and his comical chatter

The Pileated Woodpecker has always fascinated me. A beautiful large bird that is not comfortable being around people. Usually in the the deep woods and making quite a racket with it's pecking, drumming, and squawking.

  While on my walk on the Old Erie Canal Tow Path in Vischer Ferry the other day I heard the commotion above. I'd vowed not to haul along my camera this time, but just had to run home for tripod and chair to come back for the photo shoot.

   Here he is squawking WAK WAK WAK which you can hear on the terrific Cornell bird site. You can see it is a male with the red head extending all the way down the forehead to the beak. Pics are out to end of my zoom capability so marginally grainy in low light until I relent to purchasing an SLR (if ever).

    The males do most of the work making the nest. Hollowing out an old dead Big Tooth Aspen tree. He would be inside rapping away for a few minutes then bring out the wood chips in his beak.

             Don't know why but he made such an effort to furiously shake them to achieve a wide dispersion. Maybe so predators or competitors would not know of his secret dwelling.

    As I looked on the ground I could then see the results of his actions, which I normally would just walk over oblivious as to their origin.

        He displayed his beautiful profile as he noticed my shutter clicking away on bust mode.

 Female l ooking for grubs.

  Climbing up.

  Flying down to nest while keeping an eye on me.

  A little skittish hanging around.

  Female leaving the nest.

Best shot of Male. Then one day an intruder competitor bird had attempted to build a nest in his hole and the male quickly scolded them away and removed their foliage.

  Disgruntled, he exited the nest and flew away with some of the intruder nest material.

 Dad bought us a 15 minute 8 mm black and white movie of a Woody Woodpecker cartoon back in the 50's not long after Woody was created. We played that "Well Oiled" movie over and over again. Naturalist writer and birder Julie Zickefoose, (yes related to Great Grandma Sarah Zickefoose, confirmed via email) wrote this humorous article and NPR interview about the link between Woody and the Piliated. Judge for yourself.

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