Today I sat and enjoyed a pileated woodpecker feeding in a rotten alder on
my urban lot. He really went at it, chips lying everywhere below the tree.
Perhaps tomorrow he will chop deep enough to topple the upper portion. It
certainly went deep and long furrows today.
It was a joy to see and likely the last few weeks of woods in my area.
By mid-August developers will be cutting down and grading to bare earth
nearly 35 acres behind my house (near Martha Lake, west of Mill Creek). So
many birds to be displaced, so few places for them to go. For now, I spend
every evening I can enjoying the songs and calls and chopping with beaks.

Martha Jordan
www.swansociety.org