Saturday, November 03, 2007

Happy bird day

This morning while walking along creek banks and ridges, I saw a blue heron (flying), two red-tailed hawks (squawking), a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers (pecking), and four pileated woodpeckers (chattering). I've never seen more than two pileated woodpeckers together before, and at first I couldn't believe my ears: I heard that distinctive chatter coming from first two and then three different places high in the sycamores along the creek, so I looked up, followed the sound, and found them, three on one side of the creek and one on the other. Were they arguing or agreeing? Hard to say, but whatever they were doing, it was a pleasure to make their acquaintance.

2 comments:

Bardiac said...

Oh, I'm jealous! I've only seen pilleateds a couple times, and they pretty much bring me to a total, slack-jawed stop.

Bev said...

Yes, they're amazing, not least because they're so rarely seen. We don't see or hear a pileated woodpecker for months, and then all of a sudden there are four of 'em all together. Awe is the appropriate response.