I finally got my bicyle out of the basement and I biked over to the nearest gas station to fill the tires, and you'd never guess what I saw.

A Pileated Woodpecker! Now these things aren't that common, so I almost fell off my bike when I saw it! The last (and only other) time I had seen one was about 15 years ago in Point Pelee National Park and it was on the list of uncommon and rarer birds that if you saw one you were supposed to find one of the staff and tell them.

I live in suburban Kitchener, and there is a small (one block square) woods just down the street and about a 15 minute walk in the other direction is Steckle's Woods — a fair–sized bush for being in the middle of the city. I saw the Pileated Woodpecker on one of the trees in the front lawn of a house which backs onto the main road which separates my subdivision from Steckle's Woods. But still, you don't expect to see a bird like this in the middle of the city.

I guess I'm going to have to take my camera and telephoto lens into the woods to see if I can capture this bird on film. Way cool experience!