Male Pileated Woodpecker perched on a branch – © 2008 Lettuce Lake Park, Hillsborough County, Florida
The American Birding Association has selected the Pileated Woodpecker as their Bird of the Year for 2021 and I think it is an excellent choice.
I honestly can’t recall the first time I saw or heard a Pileated Woodpecker because they seem like they have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I do recall seeing and hearing them as a child at Fort Benning, Georgia and just months later in central Florida. Being an Army Brat I moved often in my youth. In my teens I saw and heard Pileated Woodpeckers in Virginia. As an adult I have seen and heard them in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and probably a few other southern states.
My Virginia backyard in early spring – circa 1999
My fondest memories of Pileated Woodpeckers are from my backyard garden in Virginia. I often had my first cup of coffee on my screened in porch listening to and watching them as the sun rose.
My backyard garden was planted with plenty of cultivated and native plants. It also had tall pines, tulip poplars, dogwoods, redbuds and sweetgums. My pond attracted lots in birds including the Pileated Woodpeckers that visited my home in the woods frequently.
When dead branches from my trees dropped to the ground I’d drag them to one of my informal flower beds to decompose and enrich the earth whenever it was feasible. Pileated Woodpeckers were the reason I did that because they would come in a feed on the insects in the decomposing branches and I’d get to watch them.
In the photo above a part of one of those branches can be seen in the flower bed near the center at the bottom of the frame.
I had some of my closest views of Pileated Woodpeckers in my garden and was delighted to hear them drum and call.
How I wish now that I had been a bird photographer back then.
Female Pileated Woodpecker in an Australian Pine – © 2009 Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
I did get to photograph Pileated Woodpeckers in Florida a few times while I lived there. Now I wish I had photographed them more often than I did because we don’t have Pileated Woodpeckers in Utah and I deeply miss seeing and hearing them.
The last time I heard Pileated Woodpeckers was in June of 2019 when I visited my son and his family in Virginia. I may have to head north into northern Idaho, western Montana, or Oregon to get a much desired Pileated Woodpecker fix.
Life is good.
Mia
More information on Pileated Woodpeckers.
(The fence in my backyard had had several panels replaced because branches falling during an ice storm had crushed some of them.)
I am remembering our first visit together at John Chestnut Park. It was where I was able to take many shots of Woody and we had such a wonderful day including seeing the small deer we have here in Florida!
Seeing my first Pileated Woodpecker was a memorable occasion. Your yard looked fantastic. I expecially liked having water features in our front and back yrds in New Mexico, but here in Florida we live on a lake and a pond would be redundant. The Pileateds have been quiet the past several weeks. Soon, as breeding season approaches, I expect to be hearing them almost every morning.
What a magnificent garden! I was able to find some peace just looking at the photograph. So sad to read that the subsequent owners ripped it out.
Thank you for sharing both woodpecker recordings.
The last image is wonderful. So many trees in that part of the country, and humid. I was living in New Haven CT for a year (1999).
Beautiful birds.
And a big sigh at the loss of that garden.
I have never seen one in the wild. Maybe one day. Lovely photos.
Your Virginia yard is beautiful! My sister in law and her family live in Virginia but she does not like to garden. Some people don’t like playing in the dirt!
April,
I hope that you get to see and hear Pileated Woodpeckers soon.
The photo above doesn’t show my whole backyard in Virginia. I didn’t have a wide enough angle lens to do that. I used to have deer, raccoons, possums and rabbits visit me and my bird count for the yard was somewhere near 90 as I recall. I miss having that much nature outside my door.
I have yet to see a Pileated Woodpecker but hope I do at some point. Your garden was…..WOW!
Thank you Liz. I put my heart and soul into my garden and made it place where I found peace and plenty of birds. Sadly when the house was sold because I divorced my ex I heard that the new owners ripped the garden out. I’ve never been back.
I don’t miss the ex, I don’t miss the house but I do miss that garden.
The woodpecker, a favorite. they used to wake me during an afternoon nap