Thursday, September 10, 2009

Wild Kingdom

The other day Wayne and I were sitting on the porch when we noticed these 2 pileated woodpeckers goofing off. I can't imagine this would be a mating ritual this late in the year - playfulness? Territory wars? Practice? I don't know. But we got a few pictures and a couple of cute videos of them. I have never seen them do this before - it was so funny! It's like they were playing hide and seek or something. We have lots of these guys around here and we love them!










Cute, eh?

6 comments:

Mr. H. said...

That's pretty neat, I have never seen any of the ones we have around here act that way either. Perhaps they were just practicing for next year.:)

Turtle said...

we have a few couples like them here. They love to hang out, then fly off to the farmers field behind us, then come back and tease the cats. We also have one of the chubby brown woodpackers that loves to play the drums on the metal cap of the chimney.... very annoying as it sounds like a jackhammer! He usuallylistens fairly well when i yell at him to cut it out.

judith said...

I love these woodpeckers, they sound like jackhammers in the trees. Our woodpeckers are much smaller (and not as loud) than these, but they act the same. I think when they do their wings like that they are trying to block the light or cause bugs to move. They'll open their wings a few times and then start pecking on the tree. Mocking Birds do this too but usually on the ground and not on the side of a tree.

Anonymous said...

very neat thanks for sharing!

missbabs said...

Thanks for posting this! I love pileated woodpeckers and their calls...nice to hear sitting in my hotel room in Schaumburg!

knittingdragonflies said...

Great photos, Thanks for sharing the Pileated woodpecker. I have only seen flashes of them.
Never this clear.
Vicki