A month or so ago when our friend Carolyn was here we took a walk through Skylands.

Shadows on The Avenue of Oaks taken two days ago.

We started our walk through the Avenue of Oaks. When we go to the small pond known as Duck Pond Rick spied a huge nesting box on a tree. He wondered aloud if it was for the Pileated Woodpecker that he and I had seen and heard on a previous walk in the same area. You would not be able to see the nesting box when the trees are leafed out!

(If you’re not familiar with the Pileated Woodpecker, it’s the woodpecker that Woody the Woodpecker was modeled after in the cartoon. They are beautiful, striking birds (no pun intended) but very shy.)

Just as the words were out of his mouth we heard the woodpecker … knock, knock, knock on a nearby tree. Then he let out his signature laughing call. We watched him as he flew from tree to tree. I tried to get a photo but these were the best I got on that day. Can you see him?

But here are some photos I took several years ago of one that was right on our street! I was lucky to have driven by him on my way home and he stayed there long enough for me to go home, get the camera and take these shots from the car. I don’t expect to get shots like these ever again! Pure luck!

Since the day we saw the box from the road I’ve wanted to go back and take a closer look, so the other day that’s just what I did. The minute I entered the area I heard the woodpecker. This is one busy bird and obviously very territory driven. I didn’t even try to get a photo of him as he continued to scold me as he flew from tree to tree.

The forest around his home looks like something out of the Hobbit.

I was walking around where I knew we had seen the nesting box and was just not seeing it. I had reached the end of the pond, so I turned around for a look behind me and that’s when I finally saw it on a tree right on the pond’s edge.

I needed a closer look at the reflection of the sky in the pond!

I was determined to see the nesting box from the front so I crossed over the inlet to the pond on slippery rocks and walked to the opposite side.

I’m sure they planned the entrance to the box so that people couldn’t manage to peek inside and disturb the birds. You’d have to be in the water in order to see inside! Not that I was planning on upsetting them or sticking my face next to a hole with a large-pointy beak inside of it!

It looks like a lovely place to live doesn’t it? I might just have to have a stake-out to see him closer. Anyone know how to build a bird blind?

Here is a link to a pileated on a backyard suet feeder that is worth watching for a really close-up look at this amazing bird. Watch out though at the beginning of the video—he comes in very fast!

In response to some questions, yes I did post the woodpecker pics on my blog but it was years ago. Here is the link to that post.

Great video.  What a great idea to put the video camera on the suet feeder.  Never seen a suet feeder that big.  Wonder if they made it.  Great shots of the pileated from your car!  Have you posted those on your blog before?  If it was a few years ago, no guarantee that I would have remembered!

Wow, what a guy (!) and I guess I missed these photos from years ago. I’ve never seen one that close, so I commend you from taking those from your car; they are great! Love the pics of his/her house,too. It’s nice to know where they nest.

The woodpecker(s) we had around here decided the bluebird house needed another entrance, so we watched, horrified from the window, as one of those pileated guys made short work of another perfectly round hole in the side of the bluebird house (it has always been claimed by them.)We thought they would never come back since they are so picky about houses.

But they did! It must be families that keep returning and they use BOTH holes to go in and out. I’m glad they weren’t deterred, but why did the woodpecker do this? He made the perfect size hole for the bluebirds. (I guess he might have been contracted by them to do the work for something more innovative!)

C, I think the guy just got lucky with getting video of him. He must have visited before. Naw, I think they bought the feeder, does not look homemade to me. Yes, I blogged about it when I took the photos but it was back in 2008 I think. I now put in a link to the blog post.

Bigsis, not sure you were following the blog back then. Are you sure your woodpecker was a pileated? They don’t normally hang out in back yards where there aren’t woods around?? Yes, I think your bird must have been working for the bluebirds.

Never mind!!! I looked in my bird book, after seeing your photos and posting the above comment, I realized that my bird was a red-bellied woodpecker, which don’t really have a red belly. They have a red head and black and white stipey looking feathers, but they are way bigger than the downy woodpeckers that we generally see and sometimes come to our feeder.

How coincidental—I took photos of a pileated woodpecker just yesterday. Not nearly as nice as yours from a couple of years ago, though—they’re amazing!

Steve, it seems we do a lot of things at roughly the same time! How cool, I didn’t realize that FL had pileateds. Thanks, glad you liked them. I know I’ll never get that close to one again. He was so busy with his tree he didn’t pay much attention to me at all.