Early Birds: Pileated Woodpeckers

Pileated Woodpecker

 
I couldn't believe my eyes. Flashes of black, white and red.  Out of the blue, two birds--big ones- flew by the window, back and  forth, before literally disappearing into a hole close to the top of a huge, old poplar tree. 
For the record, it was a winter day,  January 30, 2012 .

Well, okay.   Other than that it was pretty ordinary. Here at Incoming Bytes every time we turned around and blinked,  it was still white and winter. Even with wishful thinking, winter seems to be dragging,  it hasn't warmed up much.  Not that I'm complaining.  My pretty  boss reminds me  'we live in Canada",  winks  and hands me hot coffee.  
    I guess sometimes good things happen on winter days  too.  The sun eventually shines.  Snow slides off  the slippery steel roof with a roar.  Faces of snowmen melt and other interesting, amazing things take place. Sit in a snow bank and  watch snow fleas or deer, your choice.  The two pups run around like there's no tomorrow, sniffing at everything cool. That's because everything is cool.

But the woodpeckers  showing up, that was a genuine happening even if   it was a typically brutal -24C  winter morning. It turned around and snowed for a bit --nothing serious, maybe a couple of centimeters --oh, let's just say a cool inch  for Imperial old-timers. Around here it typically tends to mild up a bit when it starts snowing. For the forgetful unaware reader let's remind ourselves it still happened to be the 30th, a cold, damp and  bleary day with the thermometer hovering and shivering down at -13C,  warm by January standards in NW Ontario.
No matter. Oops, back to business.  Guess what. The birds spotted were Pileated Woodpeckers! They seem to be way too early this year. Early birds. A nesting pair yet.
 
If you know anything about  Pileated Woodpeckers, they are  majestic birds, about 17" tall,   the biggest woodpecker species that inhabits northern climes. Dryocopus pileatus. (  almost big enough to eat us)  Imagine having a name like that.
They nest in holes that would make carpenters equipped with 40' ladders, a lot of  nerve  and sharp chisels jealous.  The holes are hacked into  the heartwood of trees  with the entrances 40' or more above the ground.  The  unusual rising and falling cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk  song and their bright red crests and black and white markings give them away pretty quickly. 
They don't tend to  fly through the air straight either, they have their own Pileated up-down wavy flight method. It works. Most of the time.

Reviving an immature  Pileated Woodpecker

 Maybe it's the curious flight pattern, or maybe they're just a bit clumsy or daffy  from beating their beaks on hard wood as they excavate the tree trunks. With the young ones, maybe it's just not enough practice because they get in trouble sometimes. See the one in the photo I rescued a couple of years ago?

A young Pileated woodpecker  hit the solid brick wall of  the house a couple of years ago and was knocked unconscious. I happened to hear the 'thunk' and  got to the big bird before the pups found it.
After a bit of treatment he revived quickly with a shake of his head. Survival mode kicked in with the gag complex when a few drops of water was placed on his barely-open beak
That trick seems to work  for an unconscious bird.  As you can see he shook his head, spraying water everywhere.   He looked around like he was stunned, after we chatted for a bit and underwent  a thorough pre-flight wing check,  perhaps a couple of minutes,  he flew off without any apparent damage.  Every bird should be so lucky. 
Perhaps we should all be so lucky in life.  Even too early in January.   Cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk...

Is that incoming I hear?