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Our neighborhood pileated woodpeckers made a nest cavity in an aspen tree by our neighbor’s house this year.

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They raised two babies one male and one female. The babies have grown quickly.

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This week I spent some time photographing the mom and dad bringing the young woodpeckers carpenter ant larvae.

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The adults regurgitate the larvae into the babies’ mouths. The babies get pretty excited when they see mom or dad bringing food.

Both the male and female have the flaming red top notch but only the male has the red mustache below his beak.

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The babies make a lot of noise when they are hungry and they demand a lot of food in a day’s time. Mom and dad work constantly to bring enough food to make them happy.

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When getting up early in the morning to feed the kids sometimes you have a bad hair day.

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This is a shot from the base of the tree as the now fully-grown babies are watching for the parent that will be bringing lunch.

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If you ever wondered how long a pileated woodpecker’s tongue is you probably didn’t think it was quite this long. A pileated woodpeckers tongue actually starts at the top beak, goes over the top and around the back of the skull and finally into the back of the mouth. When they stretch out the tongue it can be twice as long as the beak itself. The tip has little barbs on it for catching ants.

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When the babies are ready to fly the parents start feeding them from behind the tree to force them to stretch farther out of the hole.

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Pretty soon they stop feeding them and sit on a nearby tree and call to them.

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Eventually the baby jumps.

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The babies fledged a couple days ago and have been learning to get food with help from the parents. First the little girl jumped and dad took her around our pond to teach her how to get ants. The next morning the little boy jumped and mom taught him how to get ants out of a birch below our house. Dead trees can become cafeterias to the local bird population.

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Independence Day Fireworks Grand Marais

We also watched the fireworks in the Grand Marais harbor under clear skies and calm waters.

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