First off, let me say how blessed and lucky I am that I live here in the Copper Country with beautiful surroundings, along with peace and quiet when I go for my daily walks. We live in the country, four miles from Lake Linden, so in the winter months, I strap on my cleats and head out on our country road, enjoying all that nature has to offer. On a day this past week, I heard the tap, tap, tapping of a woodpecker, so I paused and looked around for the culprit. I was excited to see a Pileated Woodpecker foraging for bugs on a nearby tree. It looks like she’s been doing so for some time, too. These large birds (16 to 19 inches long) are usually quite skittish and elusive, so I was surprised it let me get close enough for photos and a video, too. Zooming in on the photos, I could not see the telltale red stripe just coming off the bill, so this one looks to be a female.

The fourth photo is my 4 year old grandson, playing on the mountain of snow in our yard. We had someone with a Bobcat and snowblower recently come and snowblow back the snowbanks in our driveway and yard to make room for more snow to come, since we normally get more storms in March and even April. Look how tall that pile is... my grandson was trying to figure out a way to climb to the top!

Make sure you turn your volume UP for the Pileated video. You can hear her pecking away at that tree, looking for bugs, probably carpenter ants for a cool, wintry lunch.

great video of the pecker!

Cool pictures of the woodpecker and your grandson.
It just amazes me just how much snow we get here.
And to think we're not done yet, lol.

The video is cool too. I love watching Pileated
Woodpeckers. You're indeed a lucky lady to live
where you live. We all are.

Cool pictures, indeed!
And an awesome video.
It’s interesting how each
species finds their food.
Thanks for the walk, Mary.
Good stuff!

Mary you have posted really nice pictures and the
video. From my house to the UP is a 13 hr. drive.
Thanks to this site I can be there in seconds!

Simply Stunning!

Did Little Man make it to the top?? King of the
Mountain! And what a mountain! In a couple of
months, it's gone!

Hi
The first time we saw a pileated woodpecker, outside
our cabin, my brother expressed his amazement ("What
the f*** is THAT?!?").

I'm always happy to see a kid enjoying the outdoors,
particularly in the winter.

Nice pics and video of Woody the woodpecker! That's
quite the snow pile and I'd put my money on your Grandson
to conquer it and get to the top!! WAY TO GO Buddy!:-)