"When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding...

[capri0mni]

....Sweet lovers love the spring."

A list of facts about my life:

1. My house is in the center of a territory for a pair of Piliated Woodpeckers.



2. This is the season when male Piliated Woodpeckers redifine their territory.



• They do this by calling as loud they can, and drumming on a tree as loud as they can; the louder their noise, the more machismo they show off



• Here is the sound of a Piliated Woodpecker Dude drumming on a tree (RealOne audio, with visual graph of the sound)



• The particular Woodpecker Dude I'm living with has discovered how to use human technology to his own advantage; he's discovered that the metal cap on the top of my chimney is far better for advertising than any plain, old wooden tree.



• The drumming sound he produces using that technology sounds just a bit like a drumroll in a marching band mixed with a jackhammer.



• My fireplace also acts something like an ear trumpet to project that sound right into the middle of my livingroom.



3. Woodpecker Dude was very busy making his announcements, all through yesterday afternoon.



4. He's been blessfully quiet all day, today. I guess the annual courtship reaffimation (Pileateds mate for life) has given way to repairing the nest.

Of course, now that I've put this down in writing, how much do you want to bet that he'll start drumming around 7:30, tomorrow morning?

Don't you just love springtime?

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Heh. When I was growing up in a rural area we had a great big TV aerial on the house. A woodpecker dude (not sure if it was the Pileated or some smaller one) discovered that the best way to exhibit his masculinity was to drum on it at 5:30 in the morning.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

When downy woodpeckers drum, it's the exact same frequency and duration as a ringing telephone... As my father discovered, groggily, early one morning when he picked up the receiver on the bedside phone only to find there was no one on the other end...

He later caught the woodpecker in the act, drumming on the domed metal lid of the barbeque grill, thus solving the mystery...

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Aaaah. Yes. It was probably one of those -- we have Downy and Hairy out there as well. This was definitely a fast-paced drumming. I've heard the Pileated drumming on wood, and he's distinctly slower.

:-)

[barbarafett.livejournal.com]

LOL!! I love reading posts about nature, especially yours. :-)