Pileated Birthday to You

Every year, in November, Rob "arranges" a special gift for Tammy - provided the gift actually is willing to make its presence known.  Surprisingly enough, more often than not, we have some success.  Maybe it has to do with our willingness to take a little time on a nicer day in the Fall to go places where this special gift resides.

This year, the location was Malanaphy Springs.

The evidence was around us.  Some of the trees exhibited some large, square to rectangular holes excavated into their trunks.  There was the sound of "knocking" in the distance that was clearly being made by a larger woodpecker.  The gift was present - but would it make itself visible?

If you don't already know what I am talking about, I am referring to a Pileated Woodpecker.  These birds are about 18 inches long and have a wingspan at around 27 inches.  They are the biggest woodpeckers in North America and, of course, can be found in wooded areas.  As far as Iowa is concerned, they are located primarily in Northeast Iowa and the Mississippi River valley.

photo from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

These birds have a fairly distinct set of calls that are easily recognizable once you hear it a couple of times. You can hear examples of the call and the drumming noises they make at the All About Birds website.  I encourage you to go listen.

It is one thing to see evidence of a Pileated and to even hear drumming or it's vocal call.  It is quite another thing to actually see the bird itself.  And that is the gift I hope Tammy gets to receive each Fall - a sighting, no matter how brief, of one of her favorite birds.

As we walked back from the falls at Malanaphy - complete with a camera that had just informed me its memory card was full - we heard knocking that sounded much closer than we had been hearing.  So, we tried to quietly work our way (from a distance) around the trees we thought *might* be the source of the sound.  If you have ever tried to get a view of any woodpecker, you probably know that they have this knack of moving around the trunk of the tree so that they are ALWAYS on the opposite side of the tree from where you are located.  

So, the trick is for one of us to go one way and the other to go the other - slowly.  And, perhaps, one of us will get to see a glimpse of the bird we are looking for.

It didn't work.

Yet, as we were starting to walk away, what should happen?  Not one, but TWO Pileated Woodpeckers decided it was time to fly down-river, making their call as they did so.  Tammy saw the first one and both of us got to see the second.

Two this year?  I think I've outdone myself!