Top Photo: One of two pileated woodpeckers seen near the Lemur House on 22 December.

I heard the call coming from the woods next to the Lemur House, in the woods between the lemurs and the Sailboat Pond in Catch the Wind. At first I thought it the call of a flicker, but it was deeper, more liquid and more powerful than a flicker’s call. It had to be a pileated woodpecker.

I’d seen and heard pileated on our campus before but hadn’t in several years. While watching one of the current pileateds I could hear the pounding of another behind me, there were two of them!

The two large woodpeckers were searching the trees for dead wood and the grubs that might be contained within.

The day before, I heard the familiar sweet song of a fox sparrow coming from the same location, the woods between the Sailboat Pond and the Lemur House. This is the same site fox sparrows sang from last winter. If you’d like to see a fox sparrow this may be a good bet for you. Keep a sharp ear out when passing by either the Lemur House or Sailboat Pond. The area near the sailboats is more open with cleaner views, I’d concentrate my search there.

Good luck!