June 17, 1986 backing away at a dead tree. We stopped the car, could see him real well about 20 yards away. He knacked the tree so hard, huge wood chips went flying. Often he would grab a 2 inch by 5 inch piece of wood and flick it away with his bill. A pair of flickers seemed upset at his presence. The flickers were calling. It was raining lightly, some broken sunlight appearing on the tree every now & then. We could see how the pileated was exposing insect holes and carefully picking them over. As we sat in car a deer fatted walked out of the brush. After 15-20 min. of watching the pileated, we drove on. At Fort Canby we had outstanding view of the Columbia mouth, broken cloud clouds. A large colony of Double-crested Cormorants is nesting on the rocks below the Cape Disappointment lighthouse & Fort Canby. They were very agile and fun to watch as they wheeled and turned, sometimes in flocks of 20-30 birds, sometimes as individuals, about the sea cliffs. They soared well. Large rafts of Surf Scoters on water below (+100 birds). Gulls also soaring about here. Most look like good Westerns, but some appear to be Glaucous-winged.