Closer to confirmation . 
     
    
   
   
    
     BY GEOFF HOGAN 
     
    
   
   
    
     What is the status of the Pileated Woodpecker (2E1- 
     
     ocopus pileatus) on Prince Edward Island? Until recently 
     
     I would have said that the species has been exterpated 
     
     from the Island since the turn of the century. In 1891 
     
     Island naturalist Francis Bain wrote the following obser- 
     
     vation of Pileated Woodpeckers in his publication Birds 
     
     of Prince Edward Island: "The great Black Woodpecker, or 
     
     Logcock, is a lonely bird of the forest, but rarely seen 
     
     now in the cleared state of our country" Certainly be 1954 
     
     when W. Earl Godfrey published his version of the Birds of 
     
     Prince Edward Island he concluded that the Pileated Wood- 
     
     pecker was "apparently extirpated" from the Island. 
     
    

    
     Over the past few decades there has been an occasion- 
     
     al glimmer of hope that this majestic species may be stag- 
     
     ing return. On May 24, 1963 Captain E. Holdway spotted a 
     
     pair in flight in the vicinity of Wood Islands. In 1966 
     
     evidence of their borings in trees were noted by Stan Vass 
     
     and Lou Daly at the Head of Brudenell. Then in early June 
     
     1979 George Smith observed what he believed was a Pileated 
     
     Woodpecker in his blueberry field in Mounty Vernon, not 
     
     far from Wood Islands. George described the bird to his 
     
     ' - wife Bernice as being "as big as a crow...black, with 
     
     white along the side of the neck and almost a bandit's mask over the 
     
     eyes and a large red crest." Well, that certainly fits the description . 1 
     
     for a female Pileated Woodpecker! Other unconfirmed sightings have also 1 
     
     come from the Lorne Valley area in central Kings County in the early 
     
     1980's. 
     
    

    
     On October 6, 1987 I came across some additional evidence that the 
     
     Pileated Woodpecker is indeed on Prince Edward Island. While walking 
     
     through the woodlands on the Greenwich-Cable Head peninsula I discover- 
     
     ed fresh borings made by the Pileated Woodpecker. These borings are 
     
     highly distinctive because of their size, shape and location on the tree. 
     
     Various authors have described Pileated Woodpecker borings. According to 
     
     Squires (1976) writing in The Birds of New Brunswick: "Although this, our 
     
     largest woodpecker, is seen seldom its presence in a woodlot may be not- 
     
     ed by examining the holes dug in trees by woodpeckers looking for ants 
     
     or other insects. If the holes tend to have square corners the Pileated 
     
     Woodpecker has been present." Salt and Salt (1976) noted "Often a Pileat- 
     
     ed Woodpecker works within a foot or so of the ground as it excavates 
     
     nests of carpenter ants. A pile of large chips at the base of a tree 
     
     identifies the work of this species." Even Francis Bain (1891) observed 
     
     that...“the amount of chips that it will knock out of a decayed stump 
     
     which it supposes to contain a meal of grubs, is something astonishing." 
     
     All of these descriptions fit the borings that I found at Greenwich. The 
     
     square-edged holes were several inches long, two inches deep, frequently 
     
     close to the base of the tree and, beneath the fresh drillings, there 
     
     were piles of large chips. Virtually all of the borings observed on Oct— 
     
     ober 6, and again on October 7 with Diane Griffin, Jackie Waddell and 
     
     John Vessey, were in spruce trees. Generally, but not always, these wer. 
     
     large, dead or dying trees. Since these observations were made other 
     
     borings have been noticed elsewhere in Kings County but they were not 
     
     fresh. With fresh borings the exposed wood is still white and has sap 
     
    
   
   
    
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