There is a Pileated Woodpecker calling and calling from the isolated grove
of Douglas-firs next to the building I'm working in on the UPS campus. The
entire neighborhood is not very rich in trees, certainly not large trees.
This is the first I've ever seen or heard from my office window in 11 years
(species #46). I assume it's a wandering male (I don't know if the females
call like the males; perhaps they do). We've had a male in the ravine
behind our house in Seattle all winter, and it calls and calls and flies
back and forth through the trees, I assume advertising for a mate which
hasn't so far shown up. This gives you some perspective on the lives of
individual birds, which are varied just like our own.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html