Feature Creature – Pileated Woodpecker Traditional Geocache
Feature Creature – Pileated Woodpecker
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Wabamun Lake Provincial Park - to avoid unnecessary vegetation damage please use the hint.
This is the woodpecker that was the inspiration for the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, and if you’ve ever heard the call of a pileated woodpecker you’ll understand why. Its call is a loud maniacal laugh that can be heard from considerable distance. In flight it looks like a cross between a crow and a pterodactyl. It is the largest woodpecker in North America, and with its black and white plumage and striking red crest it is unmistakable.
A pileated woodpecker’s favorite food is carpenter ants, but it also eats other wood-boring insects as well as berries and nuts. When looking for a meal the pileated woodpecker listens for ant activity inside a tree, then uses its beak to drill a hole in the tree to where ants are chewing the wood. It then extracts each tasty ant with its long, sticky, barbed tongue. Although you likely won’t see a pileated woodpecker while you are here, the trees bear evidence that a pair calls this forest home; many of the standing and fallen trees here have woodpecker-drilled holes. Pileated woodpeckers also have a fondness for suet, and are frequent visitors to suet feeders in the winter.Pileated woodpeckers are cavity nesters, and need large dead or dying trees in which to excavate their nest hole. The large aspen tree near the cache has an old pileated woodpecker nest hole, high up on the south side of the tree. Old nest holes are used by a variety of other cavity-nesting animals, including kestrels, saw-whet owls, goldeneye and bufflehead ducks, flying squirrels, bluebirds, and tree swallows, so it is important to preserve standing dead trees in the forest.
The cache is a camoed lock and lock, stocked with a few small trade items.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng gur onfr bs Jbbql'f gerr.