Just take a guess who did this...

Oh, I heard him, loud and clear. It was a crisp fall day back in November and I heard his call from across the street. I ran out onto the porch and with my binos, looked and looked towards the neighbor's yard. Finally, I saw him fly from one tall hardwood to another, his red crest flaming in the sunshine. I was thrilled as I'd never seen one around here. I found myself pleading with him to come visit the tree line behind our house so I could get a better look at him and possibly a nice photo. He finally obliged me, though the sun was shining brightly on his face.


The other day, I was speaking with my neighbor whom I finally met while out weeding the mailbox bed, and asked him about his yard resident as I'd heard his "kuk-kuk-kuk" recently each morning over there as I was out getting the newspaper. "He's huge," my neighbor said with a grin. "Come see what he's done." We walked over to his yard behind a dead tree and I looked up as he pointed to the work project. Wow... what a hole! All around this dead tree were huge holes bored out. The one pictured above was probably a foot long and the largest and most impressive. I can't look at the Pileated Woodpecker without thinking of something prehistoric. He's just one cool bird!