I was walking the dog this morning 6:45 and in a wooded area I heard what I thought to be a woodpecker. Stopped and looked all around. Have heard it before and it is quite loud. Anyway I finally caught a glimpse of it hammering into a tree. It was pretty big and had a red head. I think it was crested. I am hoping it was a pileated woodpecker. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow with binoculars and without the dog and see if I can spot it again.
most woodpeckers have a very distinct call. this may help you in your attempts to spot em. kinda hard to put what that call sounds like in to words but it is kinda sharp and not long in duration. maybe thorny could help with that one. i always know when they are around just based on hearing thier calls. getting a picture is another matter as they seem kind of skittish and if they notice me lurking,will ussually flee before i can snap a pic.
Well, Ive been back down the same path an have not seen any sign of the woodpecker, but as I was coming home from Binghamton, NY going through the PA state gamelands, I caught a glimpse of a rather large red headed bird and I think it must have been a Pileated Woodpecker. I mean it was pretty big.
The one I saw in the woods on my dog walk would be difficult to get a picture of as the dog kind of gets excited when he gets in the woods and I have to walk quickly with him or he kind of drags me along.
A few years ago we had a pileated woodpecker hanging around here. When I first saw it I called my sister because I had no idea what it was. The bird was so big it seemed to having trouble flying. I posted here and I think Thornius told me that they can get quite large.
I now see smaller woodpeckers. The kind with the fuzzy heads.
Woodpeckers, especially Pileateds. fly with a stuttering wingbeat, 3 or 4 flaps that lift them up in the air a foot or two, and then no flaps at all, causing them to fall back down the foot or two that they just gained. This staggered flight pattern gives their flight path an odd and rather humorous, up-and-down path, that looks as though they were riding an invisible roller coaster on a series of small hills through the air.
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