Pileated Woodpeckers

After feeding the chicks, the male came down to the fallen logs next to us and began rummaging around for more bugs. He was keeping watch out for the pesky squirrel that lives in the area. If it gets too close to the nesting tree he does battle with it and the trees shake.

When either of the adults come out of the hole, you would think they have been blasted out of a canon. They come out like a shot. Notice the small package in her beak. They always come out with something extra so the nest stays as clean as possible. Enough said about that topic. It is just interesting to see.

Notice everything in the picture is clear but the movement of the head. Even the wood chips are fairly sharp as they come flying out in the air. We caught the male working one of the dead trees near the nesting tree. I was thrilled to get shots of that huge head pounding the tree bark for bugs and worms. This shot it at 500/th of a second and you still see the movement of the head is so rapid that it is blurry as it travels toward the tree. I got only a very few shots catching this in motion.

Another head shot showing the rapidity movement and speed of the head as it pounds into the tree to remove the bark. Once again the shot was taken at 500/th of a second.

Here is cashes in on a really nice grub that was living and eating of this dead tree.

Finally we got to see the chicks and get some shots this weekend. Even though the chicks are still small, you can tell the one on the right is a male and the one on the left is a female. You can't see the female well enough from this angle to make that call, but from other angles you can tell it.

The male woodpecker is about to feed the male chick . You can see him moving right into it's mouth. Each adult is still regurgitating the food for the babies and making a stop at the nest about every 50 minutes, so that means two feedings about every hour.

Here he is moving over to the female chick and will feed her also.

This was an early morning shot and the male, in the hole, had been evidently brooding with the chicks for the night. He had not left the nest until the female showed up to feed the chicks. Both would enter the hole, spend about 2 minutes, and then leave to search the area for insects. They would then return after about 20 minutes of gathering food. They never had anything in their beaks so I assume they would regurgitate in order to deliver food to the chicks during this first week after hatching.

The male is darting out of the hole now.

He has taken flight now and she will move over and enter the hole to feed the chicks. They must regurgitate food for the chicks at this early point in their lives. The adults never brought any insects to the hole during the day. They continued to feed in the area all the time and returning to the nest every 15-20 minutes.

The male is just landing on the tree at the hole. His wings are still flared out a little from the flight in.

The male is doing battle with the pesky squirrel after he got too close to the nesting tree. They don't get along well at all.

He acted like he was sneaking up on the hole, but for what purpose I have no idea.