First sighting of this native bird!
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| (Photo: National Park Service) |
We had a fairly good look at him. I'm certain that he was a pileated woodpecker, not a red-bellied or red-headed woodpecker. I checked the range map, and we are within an area where it's very possible a pileated would be overwintering or even breeding.
It was a great thrill to see a pileated woodpecker. I've seen them in pictures, of course, but before today, never n real life!
5 comments:
USA's smallest woodpecker and the Pileated which is the biggest. You can tell if a pileated is active in your area because it is the only one that makes rectangular holes typically with chamfered edges. It makes a series of these (usually in dead trees) in a line going down the trunk in order to get at the termites in the centre. (From Limey) Great site Genevieve - keep going!
Due to a technica glitch (my incompetance) my earlier comment got foreshortened.If you are at all interested in how it was supposed to be read on! When I lived in Hopkinsville (just off of little river road) I had the good fortune to live in a fairly wooded area. Among all of the wonderful birds which visited - and I fed - were the Downey woodpecker,USA's smallest woodpecker, and the Pileated which is the biggest. You can tell if a pileated is active in your area because it is the only one that makes rectangular holes typically with chamfered edges. It makes a series of these (usually in dead trees) in a line going down the trunk in order to get at the termites in the centre. (From Limey, Take 2)
We feed the birds too, and we've seen all of the woodpeckers from this area at our feeders, including a red-headed woodpecker which is a bit uncommon -- but never a pileated woodpecker. It was really a thrill to see him.
Do you mean the Little River Road off Highway 68 east of Hopkinsville? I go down that road often.
Thanks for reading, Limey! I am glad that several family members and friends stop by here and read, even though they never say anything! :D
Yep, that's the one, I think a farmer who bought the land I stayed on has, or is going to clear a lot of the trees and use it for cattle and/or crops which would be such a shame as far as the wildlife is concerned. Except the ticks :)
Someone has been logging along Little River Road, across the road from the Lancasters (first group of houses), and on to the river, all on the west side of the road. We used to call that part of the road "Deer Alley", but have not seen hardly any deer there since they logged it.
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