Five images of a want-to-be acrobat + 1. (All images taken through my upstairs bedroom window.)

Top image: Whilst sitting at our kitchen table, I noticed this female Pileated Woodpecker climbing up the hydro pole in our backyard. It was looking up at its mate which was also on the pole, about one meter higher. They appeared to be searching for seeds hidden by other birds in cracks and holes in the pole.


The male descended and seems to be eying my bird feeders located just beyond the squirrel barrier of bottles and slats that I had erected along the wire supporting the feeders. (1 = clothesline wire strung from the pole to the house; 2 = plastic bottles; 3 = vertical slats placed between the bottles; all strung like beads along the line. It works too, so far this year no Squirrels have gotten to the feeders.)


The male decides to get a closer look and attempts to perch on top of the bigger of the two slats. Alas, the slat rotates........


......and rotates.......


......until the Woodpecker falls off, despite vigorous flapping of wings.


Perhaps a lesson from a Chickadee might have helped.