John knows about birds, and has put feeders in various locations so we can observe from the kitchen window. One morning I told him I was watching a pileated woodpecker feeding on the fat in the small wire cage he has attached to a tree.
“Is it the male or the female?” he asked. I thought I was doing well by knowing what “brand” it was!
“Does it have a moustache? Is it big or bigger?” he added helpfully.
This one had no red slash near its beak and was slightly smaller than its mate, so this was the female.
“Look at the way it uses its tail to anchor and balance against the tree,” he advised, as one hopped around the tree. We watch them watching us too!
In the fall a loquacious pileated woodpecker stopped by to check progress on my weeding. Clinging first to a large fir, it then moved to a different tree for a closer inspection. Satisfied with my work, he flew off to see what the neighbours were doing.
Sitting in my comfy chair one fall morning, I saw a flash of colour just outside the living room windows. This turned into a flicker trying to find firm footing on the edge of the icy, sloping metal roof over the front porch. After a few slippery attempts, its toes curled securely round the sharp edges. There, facing me, it sipped drops of condensation as the sun warmed its perch. Almost smiling, it tipped its head back to swallow the precious liquid allowing me to admire its variegated colours and neat black “bib”.
Another time from my favourite chair I watched the tail of a flicker work its way across the top of our living room window. Obviously munching on cedar bugs, its “eating end” was out of sight while its talons clutched the top of guttering. We appreciate its help! Seeing only half of it somehow concentrated the bird’s colouring: pointed black tail feathers were lowest, orange-red ones above them, with white ones spotted with black alongside that. There was no mistaking what kind of bird it was. However, an unusual triangular pattern shows across the top of those windows from the pressure of its tail.
“Come and see what is happening out here this time,” John urged, pulling me away from the computer and out of my writing. I walked out to see two woodpeckers circling the tree trunk outside the kitchen window, one large with a brilliant red patch on its head while the other was smaller with a smaller red patch on its head. When John had first called me, both were eating from his “cage” of fat, one on each side, but now Momma pileated woodpecker, no doubt having learned from watching the squirrels, was playing “Big Bad Bird in the Manger” chasing off the hairy (or maybe downy) woodpecker. The circuit (circus?) continued for several minutes, each one occasionally getting a quick bite or two on the way round.
Little woodpecker, accidentally or otherwise, came up with a plan: it started pecking at the tree trunk, gradually working its way higher into the branches. Momma went up after it. Hairy flew down to feast for several moments before the stunt was spotted and it had to leave again. Next time it skittered down the opposite side of the tree and managed a few more yummy bites before being caught at the trough. Momma won out in the end though, the other one eventually giving up and flying away. It’s our daily treat to see them all.
