Pileated Pairs

This spring weather is being fickle. Three days ago at Lakeside Park the swans and ducks were feeding bottoms up on the aquatic plants in the lake, and today it is snowing as if it means not to stop. I shall cast my mind back a day, to Sunday morning, and some cold but sunny weather that once again saw the majority of the lake frozen.

I do realize that the title of this post mentions the word pileated and that this bird is a Cooper's hawk that has yet to gain its adult plumage. This Cooper's hawk did have a part to play in the morning's proceedings though. It flew overhead moments before I located the pileated woodpeckers and gave out a fairly weak, "eek... eek" as it passed by. I do like to try to emulate bird calls and so I responded with my own desperate sounding, "eek... eek" as I fired off a few photos, trying to capture the hawk's flight. Surprisingly, the Cooper's hawk glanced down, diverted its flight and landed close by. I continued with my feeble "eek eek" calls as the Cooper's hawk surveyed the area, trying to locate the other Cooper's hawk. It was not fooled for long though, giving me just enough time for the photos in the animated GIF before it again took to flight. Being in the right location at the right time was a chance happening brought about by the calls of two pileated woodpeckers that I was following. One I found in a tree.

And the other a short distance away, hidden behind a latticework of plant stems, on a decaying tree trunk lying on the ground.

They both moved to the other side of Shoemaker Creek. I could hear one pecking away at the hollow trunk of a tree while the other took the opportunity to preen its feathers.

The pileated woodpecker paused between preening its feathers to call out, listening for the response from its mate.

It was obvious that there was more than one pair of pileated woodpeckers in the area as the calls resounded from both sides of Stirling Avenue. The woodpeckers then flew over Stirling Avenue, using a utility pole as a stepping stone.

To the trees on the opposite side of the road.

One of the woodpeckers displayed with its body flattened and head pointing sharply upward, very similar to what I observed with the hairy woodpeckers in February this year:
https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2020/02/flying-high.html.

Let's zoom in to see a little detail.

Now to the part that the Cooper's hawk played in the morning's proceedings. The pileated woodpecker flew back across Stirling Avenue and this time landed on the ground. A bird out in the open would seem like a prime target for a hawk. Here is the pileated woodpecker as it braced itself.

From a distance, the pileated woodpecker may look small, but up close it is just as big as a male Cooper's hawk. The young Cooper's hawk thought better of the attack and pulled up, landing a short distance away. I was not in the best location for a photo.

The hawk moved on, and the pileated woodpeckers went back to what they were doing before. 

Flying back and forth over Stirling Avenue.

Using their tongues to reach into the cracks in the bark of the trees.

I was again not in the best position for this photo. The photo appears to show just a heap of feathers, but the pileated woodpeckers were actually mating.

That was a very full morning. I left my two photographer friends, who showed up a little later, following the calls of the pileated woodpeckers on the far side of the lake.

One final photo from me of one of the two red-tailed hawks that were active over the top side of the lake for most of that morning.

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