Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Bird Watchers

Looks like a Pine Siskin on there amongst the Goldfinches.

As far as Birds of Prey, I like the Cooper's Hawks that hunt the birds around my house. A lot of folks don't "cotton" to that - but hey, Hawks have to eat too?

My favorite is the Cheeseburger bird .

Anyone else heard them?

Speaking of pileated woodpeckers, I saw one up real close on our balcony in Markham years ago. The whole railing shook when he landed on it, man they are huge!! My parents in BC have several pileated woodpeckers in their area that bring their babies around to their suet feeders.

What's the main diet of the pileated woodpecker anyway?

Cool video!

I think the diet of that green snake was woodpecker eggs, sadly. Circle of life, I guess.

I can't see it here at work.

I was staying at the Colquhoun's place a few years ago and I spotted a big noisy pileated woodpecker that landed on a dead tree down near the dock (the tree blew down in a storm later on). I summoned the Colquhouns to come outside and view the pileated. . .

They had never seen one before. I think they're fairly rare in Muskoka. I'd only seen one before up in Georgian Bay.

A young raptor landed on the stern rail of my sailboat last summer, having accidentally dropped his prey into the lake right behind my boat. He couldn't see me and tried a couple of times (unsuccessfully) to pluck the dead bird out of the lake, returning each time to perch on the stern rail. It was really neat watching him from such a close vantage point.

Blue Jays, Bluebirds, Orioles, Cardinals, Purple Martins...too many to name...Blue Jays are my favorite. The property also attracts all different types of swallows, finches, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, bats and even Owls. Owls are cool...

I would have to get the bird book out to name some of the less common birds that appear.

Alan, pileated woodpeckers are quite common around here, so I'd hazard a guess that there's even more up in the Muskoka's.

I haven't seen a Scarlet Tanager for years but I've had a few Baltimore Orioles around here each year. On my biking trail off of the Etobicoke creek I've seen them pulling apart tent caterpiller nests, not for the caterpillers but for their own nesting material.