I did a lunchtime turn around Hoyt-Pileated inner loop back to Wilson yesterday. I took and would highly recommend you take trekking poles: it is seriously treacherous out there with the frozen snow/ice/footprint holes.
It was cold and crisp but not snowing (yesterday), so good exercise but few birds. Crows, jays, red-bellied woodpecker, titmouses, and chickadees called or flew over. I had hopes of an owl or creeper or even yellow-rumped warbler but saw none of those. The thing of note was 2 PILEATED WOODPECKERs who called (not the crazy laugh call but more like a flicker social call) and flew to a tall tree where I saw them together, then flew again. I caught up with them near the south end of Woodlleton Boardwalk where they have excavated a roundish hole in a 16” live oak just 15’ up and so close to the boardwalk that chips are littered over it. I think these are both juvenile males because I could see some red as well as black in both malar patches. I stand to be corrected, but don’t think females have red there, and yet it took some looking even to be sure there was red, unlike the ease of ID’ing a breeding color male. I fancy they are brothers. They stayed together on that tree, hopping up and hopping down while chattering to each other, worked the hole, then jumped to another tree, which finally allowed me to pass without scaring them off. Good thing because I was starting to freeze in place. So if you need a PIWO for your year list, they should be around that oak some more, I’d guess. ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
