Friday, December 08, 2006

Woody Was Here!

I've finally seen one! We've known these things were around the area because of the huge holes in the trees out back and the sounds we've heard when they were being made but I'd never actually seen one until just now. It's a Pileated Woodpecker that stands about a foot and half tall and can have a wingspan of up to 30 inches. Of course it would have been even better if I’d been able to get my own photo but he didn’t hang around long enough to strike a pose for me. I therefore had to steal this one from “All About Birds” and you can check them out for more information. Wow… made my day!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Last summer, one of the guys in the neighbourhood was cutting firewood for his customers and when he brought home the wood, he found three baby pileated woodpeckers in one of the logs. He had no idea where the mother bird was and didn't know what to do with the babies. I have no idea why, but he brought the baby birds to me!!! I called a whole bunch of places that would be able to help me care for orphaned wildlife, but to no avail. The baby birds needed special indects and grubs that are found beneath the bark of the tree. Plus, they needed the nutrients from the parent bird (when they regurgitate the food). I gave them to someone else (who knew what to do with the birds), but the babies ended up dying.

Anyway, long story aside, I have never seen an adult pileated woodpecker in real life! How cool that you saw one!

Unknown said...

ooops! That would be "insects" and not "indects" :)