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More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? 

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Last Week’s Nature Notes Bloggers

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I was so excited to hear some springtime sounds even though it is very cold and snowy still and will be for some time. I heard a very loud drumming coming from the wetland woods. There is only one woodpecker that drums that loudly that it carries so well.

SOME PHOTOS ARE MINE AND OTHERS ARE ATTRIBUTED.

“Pileated Woodpecker” by ShenandoahNPS is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

The pileated woodpecker is a very large bird the size of a crow. It took me some time to figure out what bird was making that loud call and flying from one woods to another.

It reminds me of a favorite cartoon character from my childhood…. Woody Woodpecker…

Woody Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpeckers forage in large, dead wood—standing dead trees, stumps, or logs lying on the forest floor. They make impressive rectangular excavations that can be a foot or more long and go deep inside the wood. These holes pursue the tunnels of carpenter ants, the woodpecker’s primary food. The birds also use their long, barbed tongue to extract woodboring beetle larvae (which can be more than an inch long) or termites lying deep in the wood. When hammering into this soft wood, Pileated Woodpeckers use their long neck to pull far back from the tree, then make powerful strikes with their heavy bill, pulling with their feet to increase the strength of the blow. The sound is often audible as a heavy thunk, and large chips of wood collect on the ground below.

pileated woodpecker photo cc Ramblingwoods

Sadly our woods and many woods were populated by ash trees. The emerald ash borer has killed millions of these trees leaving dead trees that eventually fall down. This is great for all woodpeckers. The photo above is not good but you can see the dead tree across the pond and the holes already and currently being drilled. These woodpeckers drill big holes. These holes are only used once by the pileated woodpecker and may benefit other cavity nesting birds and even wood ducks.

Pileated Woodpecker photo cc Rambling Woods

The pair mate for life and stay together defending their territory year round.  When one member of a pair dies, the other often gains a new mate, and this is one of the main ways that new individuals get a chance to breed and hold a territory. Their flight is strong, but slow and slightly undulating; the wingbeats are deep but quick and somewhat unevenly paced.

Pileated Woodpeckers live in mature deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous woodlands of nearly every type, from tall western hemlock stands of the Northwest to beech and maple forests in New England and cypress swamps of the Southeast. They can also be found in younger forests that have scattered, large, dead trees or a ready supply of decaying, downed wood. Throughout their range, Pileated Woodpeckers can also be found in suburban areas with large trees and patches of woodland.

Pileated Woodpecker range cc Cornell

The Pileated Woodpecker’s primary food is carpenter ants, supplemented by other ants, woodboring beetle larvae, termites, and other insects such as flies, spruce budworm, caterpillars, cockroaches, and grasshoppers. They also eat wild fruits and nuts, including greenbrier, hackberry, sassafrass, blackberries, sumac berries, poison ivy, holly, dogwood, persimmon, and elderberry. In some diet studies, ants constituted 40 percent of the diet, and up to 97 percent in some individuals. Occasionally, Pileated Woodpeckers visit backyard bird feeders for seeds or suet.

“Pileated woodpecker nest” by NatureServe is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

NEST DESCRIPTION from Cornell

The male begins excavating the nest cavity and does most of the work, but the female contributes, particularly as the hole nears completion. The entrance hole is oblong rather than the circular shape of most woodpecker holes. For the finishing touches, the bird climbs all the way into the hole and chips away at it from the inside. Periodically the adult picks up several chips at a time in its bill and tosses them from the cavity entrance. Pileated Woodpeckers don’t line their nests with any material except for leftover wood chips. The nest construction usually takes 3-6 weeks, and nests are rarely reused in later years. Cavity depth can range from 10-24 inches.

This is a video clip that was through a window again. These birds are very shy and will leave if I go outside. There were three of them and a parent was feeding them suet from one of our suet feeders. There is a hairy woodpecker who was waiting. No bird wants to take on this huge woodpecker…

The photo below shows tow woodpeckers and then a young piliated woodpecker waiting on the right side foe the parent to get some suet for it. And they regurgitate the food for the babies

Pileated woodpecker photo cc ramblingwoods

Below..This is a video from Leslie The Bird Nerd for anyone who is interested. I enjoy her videos..