A great personal show today in my  yard. 
I step out to get the paper at  7:45 a.m. and see some movement to the right 
in the big old maple tree.  To my delight, I see a Pileated  Woodpecker the 
first for the yard to actually do more  than fly overhead.  Then quickly 
becoming  two.  Both males, they are on  opposite sides of the 3 foot circumference 
tree turnk shuffling and jerking up  and down and around the trunk opposite 
oneanother, working hard to keep on  opposite sides. Ocasionally they get  closer 
and will do a quick peck at oneanother and a broad opening and flash of  the 
wings displaying the white patches.  They make no sound except the occasional 
single peck at the tree which is  usually instantly mimicked by the other 
bird...just a single peck. 
Some times one bird seems to be the agressor – moving around to get the  
other in view and the second bird moving so as to not be in reach of its  bill.  
The aggressor role seems to  change from time to time. 
They fly to another tree, landing first on the ground and then moving up  
about 2 feet and proceeding to do the dance around the trunk for at least half  
an hour.  They never get higher than  3 or four feet from the ground.  At  
8:15, they fly briefly to the fence and then over to a neighbor’s tree where  they 
resume their dance -- at it for close to 45 minutes.  So engrosed in  their 
display that they paid no attention to me, just 20 feet away. 
Lou 


Louis Nielsen  
Reisterstown, MD




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