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Pileated / Wrens



Yesterday while sitting under an oak something falling caught my eye.
Looking over I saw it was a piece of bark from the Loblolly about 15 feet in
front of me.  Looking up it didn't take long to find the culprit, a Pileated
about 50 feet up working over a dead limb.  He'd peck and pry, peck and pry,
knocking off pieces of outer dead wood hunting for meals inside.  As I
stalked over to the tree bark was floating to the ground all around me, some
bouncing off my head and shoulders.  I leaned up against the trunk and
pressed my ear to the bark.  I could feel the vibrations moving like a
spring through the huge trunk with the energy of each peck.  After a while I
knocked on the trunk to answer the call of the Pileated's bill.  He seemed
to pause for a moment, then begin drumming again, and I'd drum back.  I
stalked away from the tree and watched from a distance for a while.  He flew
to a few other dead limbs and eventually I left him be.  What a huge,
beautiful bird.

Five Carolina Wrens hatched at my house the other day.  They went hopping by
my window like a tiny row of soldiers, in a line heading from the cover of
the Forsynthia and under the car.  I followed them to the neighbors house,
watched them climb tree trunks for a few feet then hop off and flutter to
the ground.  They climbed stairs, poked around the spokes of a bicycle, then
headed for the creek in the woods.  All the while the parents were around
keeping a watchful eye, alarming at anyone, even a squirrel, that came too
close, and bringing meals to each one at a time.  They got quieter when a
Red Shouldered cried in the distance and when Crows and Grackles came close.
The parents were doing an amazing job keeping them bunched together and
getting them into thickets when they needed to, I don't envy that job.

Enjoy the weekend, Craig Armstrong / Chapel Hill