“I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall.” Obviously, that’s an expression we use to describe a pointless pursuit that accomplishes nothing but pain. However, it is an action that a woodpecker does on purpose! I marveled as I watched a Pileated Woodpecker hammering away in the Okefenokee Swamp… chunks of bark andContinue reading “Okefenokee Pileated Woodpecker Designs”
Tag Archives: Pileated Woodpecker
Okefenokee Woodpecker Excavations
The flooded prairies and hammocks of the Okefenokee Swamp hold acre after acre of standing, dead wood. An abundance of snags (dead trees) means abundant woodpeckers. There are eight species of woodpecker found in the Okefenokee, and one formerly occurring species – the Ivory Billed Woodpecker – that is now extinct. The excavations ofContinue reading “Okefenokee Woodpecker Excavations”
Okefenokee Swamp Pileated Woodpeckers
March 4, 2017 on Billy’s Lake – Around 5:00 pm, after getting shots of a beautiful, white, Great Egret, we pulled the canoe onto some spatterdock to observe two Pileated Woodpeckers on the bank. All of the Pileateds I had previously seen stayed fairly high up in the trees. But these two were foraging alongContinue reading “Okefenokee Swamp Pileated Woodpeckers”
Okefenokee Swamp Melanistic Pileated Woodpecker
Going through some older Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge posts, I found this unique observation from April 12, 2010 by iNaturalist member Marv Elliott: a melanistic Pileated Woodpecker (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/538467). Contacting Marv about his observation, he replied: “My wife (Susan) and I are birders and Naturalists. We were driving the main road, saw the pileated and knew itContinue reading “Okefenokee Swamp Melanistic Pileated Woodpecker”
Birding the Okefenokee: Pileated Woodpecker
A loud call breaks the warm, still afternoon air. “Are there monkeys in the Okefenokee Swamp?”, my young daughter asks. “No. That’s a bird”, I tell her. “Watch over there.” In a moment, a flaming red crest appears from behind the trunk of the tree, peering in our direction as it searches another soft spotContinue reading “Birding the Okefenokee: Pileated Woodpecker”
