This is the first Pileated Woodpecker I have ever had a chance to photograph.
Thanks to a friend who has been keeping an eye out for their "annual visitor",
I was finally able to photograph a Pileated Woodpecker today.

This crazy woodpecker visits every year in spring and summer and literally sleeps
on one of the 6x6" timbers that holds the metal pole building roof up over my friends
5th wheel trailer. The pole he sleeps on is within about 3 feet of their living room
window and the window has metallic privacy film on it which provides a reflection the
woodpecker adores. The woodpecker is constantly preening and putting on quite a show
for the "other woodpecker".

Today while I was there he was less than cooperative about getting his picture taken
so it took me a few hours to even get a so-so shot. I wandered out into the forest
and located him and his mate but they preferred rather lofty areas in the tree tops
so all I was granted was a bottoms up view, not exactly the picture I was hoping for...

I hung out and got to know the place a bit while waiting for the birds to teach me
their daily routine and areas they most frequented. While there I got chewed out by
a couple Red Squirrels, stared at by the local Whitetail deer and entertained by
countless Nuthatches, Chickadee's, Pine Siskin's, Junco's and Downy Woodpeckers.

When the Pileated finally came back within camera range he liked the game of Peek-a-Boo!
Whether it was from one of the 6x6" timbers or the side of one of the hundreds of trees
that were around, it still made for an exhaustive day of Ring-around-the-Rosey while this
bird led me on a merry chase... I had no idea that a Woodpecker could actually have a
sense of humor.

I did manage to get a few pictures of him and was invited back anytime I felt up to another
Pileated Game of Pursuit.