Touched by a Pileated Woodpecker

While camping at Ohio's Shawnee Conference Center and Lodge on 2 July 2011, my wife Marlene and I were treated by a most magnificent view: two Pileated Woodepckers landed on a tree just in back of the rustic cabin where we were staying. I called Marlene over and together we watched the Pileated Woodpeckers put on a most magnigificent display for the next 10 minutes.

As Marlene went back to the process of making us lunch, I returned to my reading. What followed next was simply unbelievable. Without warning, I heard a loud 'thump!' against the window of our cabin. Looking up, I could see one of the Pileated Woodpeckers, but its mate was nowhere to be found. Fearing the worst, I put on my shoes and raced outside ... only to find a Pileated Woodpecker lying on the ground below the cabin window.

I put on some gloves and picked up the injured bird, and began inspecting it for broken wings. One wing outstretched ... the bird looked okay. I began to outstretch the second wing when the bird finally noticed it was being held by a human, and as I determined the other wing was unbroken as well, the bird uttered its first call of alarm ... it was overcoming the shock of running into the window. I could see nothing wrong with its head, neck, or breast, and so I cupped the birds in my hands and took it to the edge of the yard where it would be less visible to the dogs in the area.

Twenty minutes later, while out on the porch of the cabin, a Pileated Woodpecker landed on the nearest tree trunk to the building ... it was now only 15 feet from where I stood. The plumage marks on this bird were identical to the bird I held in my hand. As I watched it for several minutes, it seemed almost to say "Thank you" before it flew off into the woods.

Racing outside again, I looked in the grass where I had laid the injured bird - only to find no evidence of the bird on the ground. The bird at the porch window only moments ago had finally recovered and had flown off to resume its life in the deciduous forests of the northeastern US. And for a brief few seconds, I can now say I held the largest living North American woodpecker in my hands for a very special moment - when time seemed to stand still.

/s/ John C. Robinson
President, On My Mountain, Inc.
www.onmymountain.com