Winter visitor - pileated woodpeckers

Any bit of colour pleases me at this time of year. The ducks, geese, hummingbirds, heron, cormorant have long gone.

The winter birds provide a change of scenery, as they are seldom seen in summer, hidden by lovely green foliage.

The hawk I spotted yesterday. Just a brief fly-by, as critters are well-buried under the surface of the snow cover, in their burrows, and food is scarce by the lakeshore. This is a rare summer photo.

I haven't seen nor heard the pileated woodpeckers, although the little ones like to sit in our bird feeder/can!

The pileated woodpecker made us a visit. It parked itself on the railing in the snow, then climbed up the tree. It ended up on the bird feeder, swinging madly. The music is the late Oliver Schroer's "The Colour of Snow". Dec. 26, 2008.



With the cold and snow of January, the bird population tends to change. This is the Jan. 2008 video of the woodpecker, with its delightful red cap. 



In the summer (a lot of my blog friends are bringing out summer photos!), the woodpeckers were scolding the cat, who was in the forest hunting for 'mice friends' while the woodpeckers were hunting for THEIR supper. I was sitting on my deck, on the computer, when I heard a bizarre noise. It had to be a bird. It was the cat's fault, Sady, who was bothering the pileated woodpeckers. I hadn't seen them in months, not since the snow melted. They were squawking away at her. They saw me and were quite quiet. In the background you can hear the happy cicada, too. Another lovely Muskoka day! July 31, 2009.