Pileated Woodpecker

Big Chief

Hard to see, but this big fellow (Pileated Woodpecker) was going to town on an old pine tree out back. Soon as I got close he jumped a few trees over. Biggest Woodpecker I ever saw. I haven't seen him in a while, since last year hitting the bird feeder.

I dunno if you can enlarge this photo on yer screen or not.

Elk creek

I spy, big bird.

kansashunter

I don't see buffy anywhere.

Big Chief

Yeah, like WMGs elusive Bear in this pic.............

tennmike

Got a few of them on the farm. They raise a new family each year up on the ridge. They sure make a racket renovating their home or boring out a new one! Definitely cool birds! :up:

waipapa13

[video]

Wasn't a certain Woodrow woodpecker was it???

Jayhawker

Pileated Woodpeckers are frequent visitors on our place...one of our favorites...largest woodpecker out there unless you happen to have an Ivorybill lurking about.

Big Chief

He doesn't don't seem very scared of other birds or people (very much) and does what he pleases.

Big owls around here to, Barred I think. They carry on in the afternoons and at night. One swooped over my head once and I about jumped outta my sneakers it startled me so much, wasn't expecting it.

They say like in this link "Who Cooks For You? Who Cooks For You-All"

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barred_Owl/sounds

woodsrunner

Barred Owls are the most sociable of all the bird world in the wild. I've cruised timber and had these owls accompany me through the woods for an hour or more. In cruising timber you move through the woods a given distance, 250 feet for example, stop and count/measure every tree within a given distance of where you stop. I've had Barred Owls, usually a single one but occasionally two, follow me and light within 20 or so feet of where I stopped....and do this for 30 minutes to about an hour. Several years ago while squirrel hunting, I had a Barred Owl follow me for a while 'till I popped a grey squirrel with my flintlock squirrel rifle. The squirrel hit the ground, the owl hit the squirrel and flew off with it. Glad I could help out!

While I am not a "spiritual" type person, I sometimes wonder if these birds aren't directly connected with the "Spirit World". Example: I have a couple of buddies who are cultural anthropologists, and several years ago during an extended drought period, they inventoried artifacts off an Indian burial mound on an island in Orange Lake close to Gainesville, Florida. (Glass beads and European items mostly). They stopped to compare notes, sitting on a cypress log, when two Barred Owls flew down and alighted one on each side of my friends no more than 12-15 feet from them and started raising mortal hell with their loud callings.....raised mortal hell until one of my friends who had lived with the Seminoles on the south Florida reservation several years started speaking to the owls in the native Seminole/Creek language telling the owls what they were doing, and assuring them that no graves would be violated. The Owls hushed, looked at my friends turning their heads 180 degrees up and down, then flew off out of sight. Like I say....I'm not given to fantasy thinking, but something like this makes you wonder a little.....

Big Chief

Well, Woodsrunner Mrs Chief just reminded me about folks always saying "Wise Owl"..........must be something to that.

sherwood

Yes, I see it.

I had one come to the tree I have my tree stand in. While up in the tree pecking for food I had a steady rain of tree bark come down. Enjoyed every second of it.

Big Chief

When he hit the bird feeder last year he is so big he has to hang off the ledge. All the birds around here have a pecking order, so to speak. Some move for others. The doves usually are ground feeders, but I have seen a couple up on the feeder lately.

Alvin and his sidekick Freddie leap from the back porch metal roof to the feeder and bypass my squirrel guard and knock seeds to the ground for their buddies. I run them off all the time.

olesniper

Here ya go.

Big Chief

Thanks.
I could enlarge it on Photobucket, but then I had to go back to normal size to get the link to post on the forum.

bklysen

Awesome birds, indeed.

I've had a few work around me while in my tree stand, and on those mornings with single digit temps the sounds are impressive. While the last one I saw was a few trees away, it still felt like his hammering was gonna knock my fillings loose...:tooth:

CHIRO1989

I usually see them during deer season from my stand also, a "little" noise from them to cover my noise is good I figure.

Bigslug

Lots of little woodpeckers in the SoCal mountains where I hunt, making their living on bugs in trees killed by various wildfires over the years. Nothing like the Eastern monsters though.

NN

I had that owl and squirrel thing happen also.

tennmike

Got some big barred owls that hang around on the ridge here. If you're coming in from the deer stand after dark and one cuts loose hootin' as you walk under their tree it can cause you to momentarily levitate. :silly: :roll2: I've had them come check me out in my tree stand. They'll light in the nearest tree if there isn't a good limb above me to do their 'surveillance'. I've seen them make short work of young squirrels and chipmunks that don't mind their '6' out getting an early breakfast. Amazing that a bird that big can take off and fly quieter than a whisper.

Got quite a few screech owls on the place, too. They hang out mostly along the creek at night. I've seen them take crayfish that crawl out of the water at the gravel banks along the creek. Them little fellers like to eat high off the hog, I reckon. Don't blame them, though; crayfish is good eats! And the creek is loaded with them.

Back on the woodpeckers, they hang out mostly around the pines here. Lots of pine borer beetles for them to make their money on in the pines. Finding a big pine tree that doesn't look like it has been shot from bottom to top with #2 shot is rare around here. Some kind of bug under the bark of the maple trees here attract them, too, especially in the spring. The two big maples left in my yard are woodpecker magnets in spring, and they bore deep enough that the trunks rain sap.

I leave dead timber standing on the ridge. The woodpeckers, especially the Pilaeted, make nesting holes in them. The holes the Pileated make are big enough for the owls to take over. And squirrels take over others, and the woodpeckers just make new ones, but away from the squirrels; squirrels will eat baby birds. There's one old dead oak up there that looks like a vertical condo; it's holes from ten feet off the ground to the top. There's a pair of owls hanging out in that tree, so the squirrels leave it alone. The owls might think the squirrel is like pizza delivery!

Big Chief

They got some kind (Spotted?) Woodpecker in GA on Fort Stewart that is protected/endangered, not the same colors as the traditional ones I think of when I think of Woodpeckers.

They stop woodcutting and close down ranges/live fires in areas it inhabits during mating season! They also like pecking metal light poles/fixtures for some reason.

I can see where some folks wouldn't like them because they are/can be destructive to trees and houses.

woodsrunner

Those are Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. These were pushed to the edge of extinction, but through good forest management changes the bird is making a remarkable come-back. The forest management plans that I write and administer will always favor the woodpecker if these are present on the tract or close by. Unlike most other birds the young will remain with the parent bird through the following nesting season assisting its parent birds in feeding the next generation of hatchlings. Then and only then will it leave its parents the following nesting season and mate to raise its own young! People could learn a hellova lot from Nature, but unfortunately, would rather be led in their thinking by governments and organized religions :tissue:

bisley

I've had these woodpeckers around my place for years, along with barred owls and red-tailed hawks. I don't know what makes this spot special, but we have always had a wide variety of birds, and at times, a bird symphony at dawn. I like the Pileated woodpeckers best, because their 'maniacal' chattering makes me laugh.

woodsrunner

Without seeing your "special spot" I can still tell you that the bird population is large and diversified due to the abundant and varied species of plants in whatever part of east Texas you're in. The more diversified the ground cover and overstory plants you have (weeds to sawtimber), the more songbirds and animals you will have....usually :up:

Big Chief

I guess I'm just an ole Peckerwood (among many on here) who enjoys the simple things in life :tooth: :conehead: :conehead:

snake284

woodsrunner wrote: »

Barred Owls are the most sociable of all the bird world in the wild. I've cruised timber and had these owls accompany me through the woods for an hour or more. In cruising timber you move through the woods a given distance, 250 feet for example, stop and count/measure every tree within a given distance of where you stop. I've had Barred Owls, usually a single one but occasionally two, follow me and light within 20 or so feet of where I stopped....and do this for 30 minutes to about an hour. Several years ago while squirrel hunting, I had a Barred Owl follow me for a while 'till I popped a grey squirrel with my flintlock squirrel rifle. The squirrel hit the ground, the owl hit the squirrel and flew off with it. Glad I could help out!

While I am not a "spiritual" type person, I sometimes wonder if these birds aren't directly connected with the "Spirit World". Example: I have a couple of buddies who are cultural anthropologists, and several years ago during an extended drought period, they inventoried artifacts off an Indian burial mound on an island in Orange Lake close to Gainesville, Florida. (Glass beads and European items mostly). They stopped to compare notes, sitting on a cypress log, when two Barred Owls flew down and alighted one on each side of my friends no more than 12-15 feet from them and started raising mortal hell with their loud callings.....raised mortal hell until one of my friends who had lived with the Seminoles on the south Florida reservation several years started speaking to the owls in the native Seminole/Creek language te.lling the owls what they were doing, and assuring them that no graves would be violated. The Owls hushed, looked at my friends turning their heads 180 degrees up and down, then flew off out of sight. Like I say....I'm not given to fantasy thinking, but something like this makes you wonder a little.....

What I believe is there's a lot more to things than we know. It is written that we don't understand. To say it's over our heads is the supreme Understatement. We get to thinking we're smart. That's always our downfall. Even though I think I've figured this out, I still am guilty of thinking I know so much. I don't really know squat in the grand scheme of things. I really think that most of us when it is push comes to shove are more spiritual than we think.

tennmike

woodsrunner wrote: »

Those are Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. These were pushed to the edge of extinction, but through good forest management changes the bird is making a remarkable come-back. The forest management plans that I write and administer will always favor the woodpecker if these are present on the tract or close by. Unlike most other birds the young will remain with the parent bird through the following nesting season assisting its parent birds in feeding the next generation of hatchlings. Then and only then will it leave its parents the following nesting season and mate to raise its own young! People could learn a hellova lot from Nature, but unfortunately, would rather be led in their thinking by governments and organized religions :tissue:

Got the Red Cockaded and Downy Woodpeckers here. They look similar as to plumage, but they are different in size. And plenty of Chickadees, Carolina Wrens, and Titmice.

Being in the woods in a treestand before daylight and having the woods come alive with first light is something to enjoy. The Chickadees and Titmice come out first, and then the Wrens. Fun to watch.

Hate the Bluejays, though. They are the anusholes of the bird world, IMO. They are the Liberals of the bird world. They will run off the other birds at a bird feeder, rake out all the seed on the ground rooting for the seeds they like, and make a mess wherever they go. And if you're hunting and they see you, they will follow you and announce to the world that you're there.

One hawk that is on the decline in my area is the Sparrowhawk, or American Kestrel. Used to see them all the time, but they are getting scarce. I miss seeing them hunting the pastures. Red Tailed Hawks are on the rise, but the little Sparrowhawk seems to be in decline. Lots of food and lots of nesting holes in trees for them here, but they are pretty much gone.

Jayhawker

I recall when I was mowing pastures, I would have multiple Northern Goshawks spend the day hovering behind the mower deck stuffing themselves in the rodents that the tractor flushed, by the time I was done for the day, they'd be almost too fat to fly....Redtails would hang out in the trees doing the same. On a side note...I've also had coyotes follow along as well. A great example of learned behavior.

woodsrunner

hum......there bro. snake! Do I detect a little Truthfulness, Endurance, Independence, Justice, Mercy, Equity, Silence, Devotion, and Attainment manifesting itself here?

Big Chief

woodsrunner wrote: »

hum......there bro. snake! Do I detect a little Truthfulness, Endurance, Independence, Justice, Mercy, Equity, Silence, Devotion, and Attainment manifesting itself here?

Hey, Snake has some lucid moments on here...............after he puts the .270s away! :tooth:

Big Chief

We have regular Woodpeckers too, one on the feeder this morning and they are much more abundant than the Pileated.

NN

Big Chief wrote: »

We have regular Woodpeckers too, one on the feeder this morning and they are much more abundant than the Pileated.

Red Bellied woodpeckers like sunflower seeds----they scatter a lot until they get the one they want, then carry it to a tree and crack the seed there.