We’ve become quite spoiled now that we have three Pileateds in our trees nearly every day. We have an adult male and female (pictured above) and a HY female. Other than when the Goshawk is about, they are incredibly fearless, totally ignoring Maggie as she sniffs about or when we’re out doing chores. Of late, they have been debarking this one tree foraging on grubs that have burled into it. The tree is to the left of the hide at such an angle, I can’t get a clear shot of them from the hide. With their seeming lack of fear of us, I decided just to talk up to it, handholding the camera rig to photograph its activity. It could care less I was there continuing with its foraging without missing a hammer.

This is the second dead tree that they have attacked this fall in our Back 9. It’s fascinating to watch the large pieces of bark fly off as they pound away. Even with their size, they prefer dead wood for forage and nesting. She was pounding away at times, cocking her head until she would stop. Then she would appear to kiss the tree and then move on to a new spot. I knew she was pulling out the bug she was after, but she was incredibly fast. I was able to get a couple of shots of her tongue in the hole, but not what she was pulling back. It was bigtime fun and now with three on the property, we have high hopes they’ll nest here this coming spring. We have a lot of food for them here, plenty of forage for the winter.

Once nesting season is over, the kids have fledge and leave the care of the parents, the Black-capped Chickadees disappear from our feeders. Their temporary disappearance is noticed and they are missed. Then a month later, maybe a little longer we hear that sweet little couple note song of theirs in the yard. Soon, the entire gaggle of them is filtering around from feeders to trees to water then back again. The Mountain and Chestnut-backed are here with them but it’s the Black-capped that bring a smile and song to our hearts. It’s simply so fun to have them around!