Eels Lake I - A Work in Progress

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to have a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) come to my fat feeder at the front of the house. She tried to get onto the feeder so she could get to the suet a couple of times before landing on the ground and looking up and studying the feeder.

It didn't take her long to figure out how she would have to land on the feeder to gain access to the food.

These mainly black birds are one of the largest forest birds in North America and I usually see one a couple of times a month.

The name Pileated comes from the Latin word pileatus which means "capped" and refers to the bird's prominent red crest. This one is a female, as the male has a red line from the bill to the throat patch running through the lower black stripe on the cheek.

As they do not migrate, a Pileated woodpecker pair will stay together on their territory all year round. They will defend their territory in all seasons, but tolerate others during the winter.















While walking through the fields and in the forest on the property I have often seen signs that they are in the area. This is because Pileated Woodpeckers digging into dead trees and fallen logs in search of their main prey, of carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae, they leave a unique, large and roughly rectangular hole in the wood.

I hear them drumming to proclaim their territory and they will often use hollow trees to make the loudest sound possible.

In April, the male excavates a hole for their large nest in the cavity of a dead tree, to attract a female for mating and raising their young. Once the young are raised, the nest is abandoned and they do not use it again.

When abandoned, these holes provide good homes in future years for many other birds and a wide variety of other animals.















After she left, I thought I would like to work on this drawing that I started while we were canoeing on Eels Lake a couple of years ago (see post on 30 September 2019).

I started working on the rocks in the water in the foreground, indicating the outline and adding some of the shadows.

I put in a few water ripples to give me a base for the island.

Next, I put the bark texture on the lower part of the main pine tree.

From there I started on a small pine that was just in front of the larger pine.

I put the ground lines in first. This was followed by the trunk and then gradually adding branches and needles.

I will post this drawing at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork. I hope you will return often.