The Miracle Of Woodpeckers

[Music] um [Music] there are times in our lives when nature invites us in for a closer look it doesn't happen all too often certainly not every day or even once a month but every now and then just when we think life couldn't be full of any more surprises we are called upon to partake in a slice of the grand mystery so thick that nothing in the world could ever prepare us for such an event it just so happened that one afternoon in late may i received one of these special invitations i didn't ask for it i didn't have anything to do with it as far as i'm concerned but it was handed to me nonetheless and without a second thought with no hesitation whatsoever i accepted [Music] it was a rainy afternoon the clouds had finally parted and i was walking through a familiar wooded area full of large beech trees and maple trees and oak trees and it was on my way out of these woods when something interesting happened i heard some really strange sounds that i had never heard before the sounds reminded me of quacking ducks but i didn't think any ducks would be found anywhere near this particular area so i turned around and looked up into the canopy directly towards an opening created by a leafless beech tree and it was no sooner that i looked toward this standing snag then i discovered something so remarkable something i had never seen before something i could not believe i was seeing right at that very moment a pileated woodpecker nest replete with an adult male and his two sons [Music] now there are things in nature that are so fleeting that you barely have time to ask yourself what was that let alone get your camera out and photograph it and i'm sure you've had plenty of those experiences this was not one of those times however because i knew that the miracle in front of me would continue to unfold for days to come and so i made up my mind on the spot to visit that tree every day until the juveniles left now i'll be honest with you i didn't know what to expect i didn't even know when to visit evening seemed like a safe bet because that's when i first saw the pileated woodpeckers but i didn't want to wait 24 hours as i'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to do that was much too long so i decided to wait 16 hours instead and i showed up the very next day at 8 am i walked quietly within viewing distance of the beach tree i set up my camera and i waited five minutes went by and i didn't see anything 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes nothing and then as if by magic cutting through the faint sounds of the wind blowing through the trees i heard wings and then i saw him the majestic male pileated woodpecker donning his characteristic red crest swooping down and landing outside his nest the feeding lasted less than a minute with each juvenile receiving his share of insects and caterpillars and grubs the adult woodpecker then looked around checked his surroundings and flew away now little did i know that this routine was actually a routine one that would proceed like clockwork almost every 25 minutes or so the feeding frenzy would begin anew and i would know only a few seconds in advance that all of this would happen i would either hear the flapping wings of the adult flying toward the nest or i would see its large shadow cast down onto the trees or i would see the juveniles thrust their heads out and i would hear their quacking calls before the adult was even in sight within seconds the feeding would commence and this routine would repeat for days and days and days [Music] now when you look at a pileated woodpecker you realize that you are looking at one of the forest's most impressive birds from the east coast to the gulf coast across canada westward all the way over to the pacific coast the pileated woodpecker is a year-round non-migratory resident throughout its extensive range and although it is described as being a mature forest specialist the pileated woodpecker can nowadays also be found in younger woodlands and in suburban areas if you are lucky enough to see a pileated woodpecker perhaps you will encounter one hammering away at a dead tree whether it's a standing snag or even a fallen log hunting for its favorite meal carpenter ants but other insects will do including flies beetle larvae and caterpillars and when these are in short supply fruits will be consumed instead more often than not though you will hear a pileated woodpecker before you see one its characteristic tarzan-like call is loud and unmistakable and it can be heard from an incredible distance in the woods [Music] now if you ever encounter an active pileated woodpecker nest you will notice that both a male adult and a female adult attend to their nest and this pair of adults is a mated pair for life together they occupy a territory of at least a few hundred acres and if one member of the pair dies the other one will often gain a new mate the adult male woodpecker is distinguished by his red mustache known as a mailer stripe and his red crest on top of his head extends all the way down to the base of the bill the adult female peleated woodpecker does not have a red male or stripe and the red crest on top of her head does not extend all the way down to the bill now even though the status of the pileated woodpecker is stable throughout much of its range today it wasn't too long ago when numbers dropped precipitously during the mid-1800s through the early 1900s forests were decimated across north america for lumber harvesting and for agricultural clearing and this widespread deforestation in addition to unrestrained shooting led to a sharp decline in the pileated woodpecker population many people feared that the pileated woodpecker would not survive the loss of its preferred habitat but despite the large-scale destruction inflicted upon its home the pileated woodpecker experienced a remarkable recovery in the 20th century as conservation efforts were established to maintain and protect large tracts of forested land the early morning hours i spent observing these pileated woodpeckers turned into my personal routine every morning rain or shine i visited and i began to notice some things for example the adults only infrequently made their trademark piping calls either from a distance or near their nest the juveniles were the rowdy bunch always quacking away when adults were in sight and even quite often when no adults were anywhere near the nest i also noticed that one juvenile male woodpecker was growing much more rapidly than the other i actually didn't think that both juveniles were males based on the one's muted colors his black feathers looked gray compared to the feathers of the other male and the red stripe next to his mouth was barely visible so i started to call this woodpecker the little one and i called the more vibrant looking juvenile the big one the big one was always the first to thrust his head out of the hole when mom or dad would approach and the big one would be the first to receive food he's quite the extrovert i would think to myself and i wondered when the little one would catch up now at this point seven days had gone by i didn't miss a single morning and i wasn't about to skip a morning anytime soon though i was really starting to wonder when the juveniles would leave their nest it got to the point where i would walk quietly within viewing distance of the beech tree in the morning and already see the big one sticking his head out every now and then the little one would also stick his head out but this happened much less frequently more days went by 9 10 11 days and the big one looked like a turkey sitting up there in the tree filling almost completely the entire hole looking like he was going to depart at any moment and then it hit me i might never see these woodpeckers again i could leave for the day come back the next morning only to find out that both juveniles had left of course this would ultimately be great news but i was getting used to this little routine we had established for ourselves and i wanted them to be here as long as i was willing to be here you see these pileated woodpeckers became my friends my companions my teachers i was learning so much not because i was reading about them but because i physically sat in the presence of them for dozens of hours with no distractions well the next day rolled around the 12th day to be exact and to most people it was probably a morning like any other but to me it wasn't because wouldn't you know it the inevitable happened i walked quietly within viewing distance of the beech tree i looked up and i saw nothing and i heard nothing now you can be in the woods with all kinds of bird songs surrounding you and still hear nothing let me tell you because that's what i experienced that morning over the span of 12 days my ears had been carefully tuned to the pileated woodpecker sounds and so when i didn't hear them i heard nothing until i did somewhere behind me somewhere off in the distance every so often i would hear the piping call of the pileated woodpecker but it was one call in particular that stood out it was louder than the others which meant it was closer than the others so i turned my head to try and catch a glimpse of whoever it was singing its song and on a large tree behind me an american beach of all trees i saw it but this one looked different even from a distance i could tell that the pileated woodpecker clinging to this tree was smaller and that's when i knew that who i was looking at was the big one i literally could not believe it here he was out of his nest exploring the forest but still less than 100 yards from his nest makes sense i thought to myself but i still could not believe that i was experiencing this remember the whole situation was new to me so i didn't know what to expect at any step along the way but what i do know is how i felt in that moment i felt very fortunate and blessed and that feeling of this could be the last time you see him came swirling up and at that point i was okay with it because i had seen more than i ever expected to see none of this had to happen literally none of it but it did and i was grateful now we could end the story right here but you might be wondering what became of the little one you see the little one was still in his nest the day that the big one left and on that day i watched the mother visit i also noticed that she spent just a little more time inside the nest than i was used to observing her do it seemed a little odd to me but i thought well there's only one juvenile left and perhaps this calls for a slightly different routine and i eventually went home wondering if the little one would leave the nest to join his brother that evening so the next morning i arrived i looked up and i saw nothing i waited a little bit and still saw nothing and i heard nothing after a little while i decided to walk to the other side of the tree to get a better view of the nest so i packed up my camera and headed over and as i approached the base of the tree i saw him the little one i saw him like i never saw him before he was small much smaller than his brother and he was motionless completely stilled at some point since i last saw him he had taken his last breath under the tree in which he had spent all of his days and all of his evenings under the tree that like the little one had also once been animated by life i had no answers and i still have no answers why this one didn't make the transition why he didn't have the same opportunities that his brother had why he's not out there clinging to a beech tree right now awkwardly learning how to fly and doing whatever else it is that young pileated woodpeckers do but fate had different plans for the little one and what had once been solely his place of birth had now also become his place of eternal rest [Music] today this nest is empty the pileated woodpecker family has moved outward and onward and although the two parents and the young juvenile are still living within these woods the adults will not return and reuse this nest next year instead a brand new nest will be carved out in a large dead tree somewhere else nearby with most of the work being performed by the male but this nest the one that was the source of so much activity for the past month will not be neglected a space like this is prime real estate for other animals like bats and swifts and owls that require cavities and trees for nesting and roosting and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to suggest that without the pileated woodpecker many lives would be in peril and the forest would cease to operate in the same exact way the pileated woodpecker therefore is an ecosystem engineer a true keystone species whose intimate interaction with the trees affects and benefits the entire forest and as long as the big trees do remain the piping call of the pileated woodpecker will continue to be heard in forests all over eastern north america across canada westward all the way over to the pacific coast [Music] some people say that nature works in mysterious ways and i tend to agree i don't think however that it is nature's intention to be mysterious but that we humans just don't have the full capacity to understand the complexity involved in something as intricate and as old as nature is fortunately there are times in our lives when we are invited in for a closer look it doesn't happen all too often certainly not every day or even once a month but every now and then perhaps during those ordinary moments when we're just walking out of the woods in a friday afternoon we are called upon to partake in a slice of the grand mystery so thick that nothing in the world could ever prepare us for such a miraculous event [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 453,415

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Id: 4pIMTkiSt4Q

Length: 19min 12sec (1152 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020