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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

 A swooping flash of red, white and black interrupted the morning 
muse. It landed on the old oak that dominates the area in front of 
the house. A few rips at the lower bark answered my question of why 
patches of bark had recently fallen. That's okay with me. This hungry 
tree cleaner is welcome to all the beetle larvae it chooses to 
excavate. When done it is welcome to dine on any carpenter ants it 
might find. It will have to wait for next year to sample the apples.

This was a young male, only about nine inches long. Mom and Dad are 
five or six inches longer. They nest in the area behind the shop and 
are none too happy about all the clearing and excavation work going 
on back there. Of course that is my projection. More likely they are 
simply programmed to scold anything messing around in their 
territory. Maybe they think loud and sometimes incessant kuk-kuk-kuks 
will drive me away. Their calls bring to thought the high-pitched 
laugh of a crazy old hag.

For those not acquainted, Dryocopus pileatus has a predominately 
black body, wears a red beret pulled low over the eyes and has white 
stripes on its neck and black and white stripes on its face. Less 
easily seen are the yellow bristly feathers over its nostrils that 
protect from wood chips. Long, sticky tongue, long, sharp pointed 
bill, yellow eyes. Males and females are similar but males have a red 
forehead while females have a gray to yellowish brown forehead. As is 
common in birds and we mammals, males are prettier.

The correct pronunciation of pileated is to apply the long sound to 
the first three vowels. It's more fun to say pillyated, which rhymes 
with filly-gated, which is appropriate because these guys do the work 
of many lesser peckers. I first became entranced with this horse of a 
bird many years ago. There was a large cross-bred oak in the front 
yard. A half-dead limb of perhaps a foot in diameter received 
frequent attention from the Woody Woodpecker design inspiration. 
Great, large chunks of wood flew to the ground as if from a mad 
arborist chainsawing his way to daylight. Never had I seen a 
woodpecker peck out such obstacles in his search for breakfast.

The youngster I saw this morning will have to move on. Pileated 
pairs, which are strongly monogamous, presumed mated for life, 
require from 127 to 384 acres of territory here in Missouri, 
depending on forest density. In northeastern and western Oregon, 
studies found they need over a thousand acres. Populations have 
increased in the last few decades especially in the eastern half of 
the country due to old farmland reverting to forest. They keep the 
same home territory but make a new nest cavity each year, so need an 
ample supply of large trees suitable for major excavation. No more 
than one brood per year of one to eight naked kids are produced. I 
feel fortunate that they like it here at Heartwood.