Pileated Woodpecker

 "A woodpecker's drilling Echoes to the mountain clouds." 
                                  -Dakotsu lida

 Fall has brought the gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker scuffing around the seed trays set out for the Stellar Jays

 And with the Jays and the massive woodpeckers, comes Spencer, the neighbours' cat. Eager to have a look.

 Mornings are cool and clean.

 Sometimes you can here the woodpecker smack away at tree trunks. He likes carpenter ants  best.

 But lately, he likes to sit in the seed pan and scare away everyone else while he stuffs himself silly.

 "The day should come when all of the forms of life will stand before the court, The Pileated Woodpecker,as well as the coyote and bear, the lemmings as well as the trout in the streams." 
                                                     -W.O.Douglas

 They love to dig in wood. Bugs. Ants. Termites. Yum yum.

 A pair will stay together in the same territory all year long. 

 In this area, they are all around the woods, but I haven't seen them in a while till last week.

 It is said that they are the size of a crow, but I figured that this one was larger. He was cheeky and smart, and knew how to get what he wanted.

 Using his tail to steady and balance on the surfaces he latched onto.

 "Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling. Falling as if they are in love with the ground." -Andrea Gibson

 It's a good thing to leave fallen tree trunks to rot as the Pileated Woodpecker loves  this sort of thing. I just love watching them hang off the fence or the wooden plant boxes, as if they were Christmas ornaments....

 "A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.” -Seth Godin

Photographs 2017