Thursday, December 6, 2007

Woodpeckerpalooza

Thursday, December 6, 2007
9 comments
Red-shafted flicker at Bosque.


One of the great pleasures of this year's trip to New Mexico was that it was Woodpeckerpalooza. We scored more good looks at the members of the Piciformes than any other family.

It started out normally enough with the expected red-shafted flickers at Bosque del Apache NWR.
The flickers were going ape for the fruits on this tree in Socorro.


On Saturday, on the first trip we lead to Water Canyon (about 20 miles northwest of Socorro), our van was at the end of the caravan of vehicles heading up to start birding at the campground. We stopped along the entrance road, about half a mile below the campground, to look at some acorn woodpeckers and it was so birdy, we spent the next 30 minutes enjoying the birds.

The sunlight had hit this part of Water Canyon, so the birds and insects were active. The air was warming, too, so even the little birds--the bushtits and mountain chickadees--were moving about and calling. Farther up the canyon, the campground was still in the shade of the canyon walls, and the cold air prevailed making it far less active for birds.

While following the flight of the flock of acorn woodpeckers to a hackberry tree, I spied a long, dark sapsucker. Then another and another. They were not all the same species, either! The darkest one flew. No white in the wings. Striped overall. Yellow belly patch. A female Williamson's sapsucker! I shouted as the bird disappeared over the trees, headed down the canyon. Few others got on it. And this was a target bird.
Acorn woodpecker with its distinctive "clown make-up" face and head pattern.


Sapsucker wells and acorn woodpecker cache holes. The acorn woodpeckers store acorns in the holes for future consumption.

We enjoyed the acorn woodpeckers who seemed oblivious to our presence. They had been working over this hackberry tree for some time, it was clear.

I relocated the other sapsuckers--they were red-naped sapsuckers. They hung in the tree for the entire time we were there, tap-drilling new holes, and hitching from well to well. These were my best looks ever at this species, so I tried to soak up the experience as I got the spotting scope on a superb male for the trip participants.

Canyon towhee, western bluebird, Townsend's solitaire, western scrub jay and Steller's jay were among the other species highlights. Overhead common ravens kept up a constant stream of growls and croaks. We'd come from the desert below, where the ravens were all Chihuahuan (formerly called white-necked raven).

Soon guilt set in and we realized we'd better rejoin the main group at the campground. Up the road we went, intent on hiking up the mountain trail to where we'd heard a pair of Williamson's sapsuckers had been seen.

From the parking lot, we hiked up the logging/access road. The altitude was enough for us flatlanders to get short of breath. Scars six feet up the trunks of the ponderosa pines showed us where the snow plow had passed the previous winter.

The birding here was very quiet. Nothing much moving or calling. Then someone spotted a swooping woodpecker, flying to a the largest tree trunk in view. It was the Williamson's sapsucker! A male this time. He was very shy and scooted to the back side of the tree each time we tried to maneuver for a better view.

Leading a birding trip and bird photography do not mix, I found. It just didn't feel right to be concentrating on taking photos while several folks still needed to get on the bird. So I got the scope on the bird...and it flew.

Our first look at a male Wiliamson's sapsucker.

Most of our group decided to head on up the trail to meet the rest of our trip's participants. I radioed Julie, leading a group farther up the mountain. "Nothing much up here." Came the answer. I decided to sit tight to wait for the sapsucker to come back.

Until the late 19th century, the male and female Williamson's sapsucker were thought to be separate species. And it's understandable--they look completely different from one another. The male is boldly marked with black, white, red, and yellow. The female's coloration is more muted overall. She lacks his obvious white wing patch, as well as the boldly striped black head.

Back at Water Canyon, we were soon rewarded for being patient. A female came in. After she left a male came in too. Clearly this ponderosa pine--the largest in sight in these woods--was they favored foraging tree. I radioed up the mountain and Julie's group hoofed it back down to see the bird.

After everyone had gotten an eyeful, I snapped of a few frames with my Canon 30D. Shooting into the light I knew they'd be horrible, but I wanted a documentary record. The Wiliamson's sapsucker is named for a Lieutenant Robert Stockton Williamson, an early western surveyor.

The male Williamson's flashy plumage is obvious even from a great distance in poor light.


I think this might be a young male Williamsons. The face and head pattern seem to bold for a brownish female.

We returned to Water Canyon the next day, and had equally good luck with the woodpeckers. I still had no time or luck with photographing the woodpeckers, but Julie and I (and our fellow leaders Mary and Rob) got a lot of people their life looks at several birds.


The following day we were in Arroyo Seco in the northern part of NM. It was here, the previous year, that we'd found a colony of Lewis' woodpeckers. After several attempts to see the birds--their grove of cottonwoods seemed to have been taken over by American crows--we finally gt a single individual. The Lewis' woodpecker is named for Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. I didn't realize it when it happened, but a few hours later I would sweep the "Corps of Discovery" species by seeing a Clark's nutcracker!
Meriwether Lewis' woodpecker preening in a cottonwood.

The Lewis' woodpecker is a fine bird. It's got loads of color, it perches for long periods allowing good looks. And it flies like a crow--not in the undulating flight style of most woodpeckers. It was clear to us that the Lewis' woodpeckers used this cottonwood grove only from late morning until early afternoon. They preened and foraged in the sun. But when the day got on toward dusk, the crowns and ravens took over and the woodpeckers departed quietly for their roosts.

We also saw hairy woodpeckers and ladder-backed woodpeckers on this trip. However, the most special woodpecker was one we found on our last full day in the Land of Enchantment.

More on that soon....

9 comments:

On December 6, 2007 at 11:26 PM Onedia Hayes Sylvest said...

Woodpeckers are SOOOOO under appreciated. One of the greatest advantages of winter is that we can clearly see the woodpeckers working on the tree limbs and they flock to the woody suet. The photos of the flickers are great. I haven't seen an acorn woody before. We have pileated, hairy, downy, northern flickers, red breasted and ladderbacks that don't know they are not in Texas.

On December 7, 2007 at 10:44 AM dguzman said...

I loves me some woodies! That Lewis' wp is beautiful.

On December 7, 2007 at 12:10 PM Rondeau Ric said...

There are two sides to a tree. The side you're on and the side the bird is on.

On December 7, 2007 at 12:35 PM Mary said...

Woodpeckers excite me - over and over again.

You saw some beauties.

On December 7, 2007 at 3:35 PM Bill of the Birds said...

Yes woodpeckers are mighty cool birds. And I really admire the sapsuckers out west--so much more colorful and varied than our lone eastern one.

On December 7, 2007 at 6:23 PM Julie Zickefoose said...

Do not diss the yellow-bellied sapsucker, butt of all non-birder birding jokes. It is such a lovely bird. Would that we had more species here. Is there more sap in the Wild West? I wonder.

On December 7, 2007 at 7:12 PM KatDoc said...

I love woodpeckers! So cool and colorful. I saw Acorn Woodpeckers in Cal. and couldn't stop watching them. That Lewis' would be a real treat!

~Kathi

On December 8, 2007 at 8:36 AM Jayne said...

Wow...Woodpecker Wonderland indeed! Love those cool colors on that Lewis' and the fact that he just sat so nicely for you! Wonderful shots Bill.

On December 8, 2007 at 4:52 PM Mary C said...

That was a fun trip up Water Canyon. I hope we all get to do it again next year. It was amazing to see so many different species on the trail. You and JZ and Mary Alice and Rob were super leaders. Thanks for such a wonderful ending to a great trip. I mention "ending" because it was the last event we had signed up for (on Sunday).


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