The Morning Porch » pileated woodpecker

A pileated woodpecker lands on the...

Dave Bonta — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:31:10 +0000

A pileated woodpecker lands on the dead elm right beside the flicker den hole and knocks twice. A flicker pokes her head out. He flies off.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:24:52 +0000

Two pairs of pileated woodpeckers breakfast 100 feet apart, one on adjoining oaks and the other side by side on the trunk of a locust.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:18:55 +0000

Pileated woodpeckers forage on all sides, hammering, drumming, cackling, whooping. I feel as if I’m surrounded by a troupe of insane clowns.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:29:05 +0000

Querulous cries of a raccoon, like lost notes from a soprano clarinet. Two pileateds hammer for their breakfast—an arrhythmic percussion.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:36:46 +0000

The sun glints off periwinkle leaves in the yard where snow has just melted. All sounds come from a great distance: crow, woodpecker, train.

Dave Bonta — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:09:20 +0000

Two pileated woodpeckers cackle back and forth. Patches of moss at the woods’ edge seem to glow in the dim light. The smell of rain.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:06:24 +0000

Two pileated woodpeckers forage in the birches, scarlet crests glowing in the sun, the sky below them in the windshield of a parked truck.

Dave Bonta — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:34:24 +0000

Rain and fog. A pileated woodpecker performs invasive surgery on a locust tree next to the springhouse, removing a malignant colony of ants.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:41:39 +0000

Colored leaves turn backwards in the cold wind—still the same pale green. A pileated woodpecker’s distant chant.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:20:55 +0000

A pileated woodpecker heading for the tall locusts lets out a whoop with every wingbeat, its crest like the bloody barb of a harpoon.