May 29, 2009 - 2
Cool sightings of the week:Is one of our coolest sightings yet! Last Monday morning, while sitting inside the back garage with a friend, a strange and unfamiliar bird call was heard just outside the open door. Woika, woika, woika. There it was, amidst the other more familiar birdsong and yet somehow standing out among them. When we heard it again, my friend leaned over to look out the door and nearly shouted "quick, look, its the pileated woodpecker!" I jumped up, maybe a bit too quickly and looked out the door just in time to see a large black avian figure disappearing through the trees. That's all I was able to see, but my friend assured me that it was indeed the pileated woodpecker.
About eighteen inches tall, this big woodpecker is mostly black with a bright red crest and a white stripe on its neck. Another friend down the hill sees them in his yard sometimes so it doesn't seem too far fetched that the bird would make its way up the mountain. Either way, the call that we heard is typically given during courtship or territorial interactions. I'll keep an eye out, maybe its here to stay. Woika, woika, woika, catching a glimpse of the pileated woodpecker in the backyard this week was very cool!
Heard on WDVR FM every Friday at 3PM during Anything Goes!
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