Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Pileated Woodpecker has found us!

Today, as I was walking away from the kitchen and back into the office to do more class prep, my husband said with an urgent tone: "Look at the suet! Look at the suet!"

"Which side?" I asked, since there's a suet cage that hangs in front of each of the picture windows in our small apartment.

"The kitchen one!" he said, as he ran to grab his camera.

Last year, when I lived in the apartment now occupied by Dr. S, a Pileated Woodpecker, one of the most majestic birds I've seen, used to come to the suet cage regularly. So regularly, that when a student house sat for me, she saw the Pileated merrily having his meal at the suet several times.

Once we moved to this apartment, though, the Pileated was gone, and we thought he'd never come back because the back of this apartment is more exposed than the one where Dr. S now lives, which overlooks the woods, where this hugest of woodpeckers freely roams among the trees.

But we were wrong. The Pileated is back and I'm going to say that it's the same one who visited me before. It just took him a while to figure out where we'd moved. I like the sound of that story, and I look forward to my husband getting a better picture the next time the Pileated visits with us.

4 comments:

Dr. S said...

Oh, hooray! He hasn't been to my suet cage at all. (And those damned squirrels brought the bird feeder down again.) I'm glad that he's stayed loyal to you. :)

Anonymous said...

Isn't he so majestic?! It's amazing to just watch that bird fly.

Boricua en la Luna said...

Dr. S, Hooray, indeed! :) He might come to yours yet!

JP, He is majestic, and I love his call. It's so recognizable, like the hawk's. BTW, LKO saw your eagles recently when he went out for a run.

Anonymous said...

That's wonderful! I wish there are birds like that over here, but I live in a city almost desolate of trees. I hope you'll get more photos! :)