For the past several days, a male Pileated Woodpecker has been hammering on a hollow tree near the parking lot at the southwest end of Taylor Creek Park. This is the lot where the city recently installed a dog run. The bird has found its tree of choice on top of a ridge to the south of the parking lot. The sound it makes can be heard from quite a distance--it really rings--but the bird itself is difficult to see because the forest is so thickly wooded in that area. Sooner or later, it gets tired and flies away, and then it's quite easy to see if only because of its size. I saw it flying to the west yesterday afternoon around 4:00.
In the meadow above the parking lot, and mixed in with the Robins, Cardinals, and Red-winged Blackbirds was a single Blue-headed Vireo. A couple of Hermit Thrushes in the pine woods below, and on my way out, an Eastern Phoebe singing its guttural song from the top of a deciduous tree.
