rsc

So yesterday

jwg and I were nearing the end of what had turned out to be about a 5-mile walk around Mirror Lake in Yosemite National park; we were somewhat tired and quite hungry, as it was about lunchtime and then some. We had seen a few birds and heard a lot more, including the drumming of woodpeckers. And at this point we heard a series of slow, regular thunks, of which John said "That's probably not a woodpecker; I think it's a human hammering on something." I said "You think so? Well, maybe."

Moments later, we heard a series of harsh notes almost directly above us, and looked up to see a good-sized bird at the top of a dead tree, maybe 20 feet up. I said, "That's a woodpecker"; John said, "And it has a crest". I trained the binoculars on it, and saw that it did indeed have a crest, a bright red one; it was unmistakably a pileated woodpecker, a bird I've never seen live, and have wanted to since I was old enough to know that I wanted to see a bird. As I watched it, it went back to attacking the tree, producing a series of slow, regular thunks.

"Tired" and "hungry" were suddenly (at least for the moment) forgotten concepts. We watched the bird until it flew away some minutes later. John took some pictures, which he'll presumably post later if they look any good.

As far as I'm concerned, this trip is a success, no matter what else happens.