Pileated Woodpeckers eat deer!

by Charlie P
(Puposky, Minnesota, usa)

Every fall after deer hunting, we hang a rib cage in a tree for the birds. For the past two weeks a pair of Pileated woodpeckers have been very frequent visitors. There is an old red oak next to the birch from which the carcass is hanging and they divide their time between pecking at the dead top of the oak and riding on the swinging rib cage. A lovely northern shrike is another frequent visitor to the venison. Birds have been pecking at it since early November and now it is pretty well consumed, toward the end of January. When the ribs start falling off, we will take it down so that our lab. doesn't sicken herself on them.

Today we have about a 35 below windchill and the pileated that isn't feeding on the rib cage is hunkering tightly on the down wind side of the oak, looking nearly frozen.


Comment
Brrrrr! Thank you for sharing Charlie!