To Gary and Dave, my Pileated friends

I was sitting outside with the dogs earlier; just reading and watching nature.  Suddenly I heard a Pileated woodpecker close by.  I went and got my camera, because I can't resist a woodpecker picture and especially not a Pileated. 

Pileated woodpeckers are North America’s largest (non-extinct) woodpecker.  They are survivors that have overcome urbanization and the forestry cutting down dead trees in which they build their homes. They are the largest of the woodpecker family and the size of a crow.  The 18 inches and 29 inch wingspan makes them majestic looking in the sky.  Oh, not majestic like a bald eagle, or an osprey, or even a red-tailed hawk, but in their own way majestic none-the-less.  The pictures are not my finest by any stretch of my imagination.  The light was all wrong and I couldn't get him to fly the way I wanted him to.  I asked him to please let me get my back to the sun, but he wouldn't listen. 

If we came back after we die I would want to be a Pileated woodpecker. I remember recently when I was at home, Gary and Dave and I were walking through Frick Park.  Dave mentioned that he had see some Pileated woodpeckers there, so Gary and Dave these are for you.  You, like the Pileated are survivors and hopefully I can say I am too.