This afternoon, I had the pleasure of observing two Pileated
Woodpeckers in a one-hour feeding session on a dead and decaying Paper
Birch trunk. They were busy behind a little thicket of young spruce,
maybe 10-15 meters off an occasionally frequented trail in the Dingle
Park (Halifax). Neither passing people nor barking dogs interrupted
their feeding; however, when the beeping of a truck backing up could
be heard in the distance, they immediately interrupted their feeding,
and flew off onto another trunk; after the beeping stopped, they
waited maybe a minute, then returned to their feeding site.
This observation made me realize how far noise can reach, and that its
impact can be hard to assess.
Burkhard
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