I don't know who is responsible for the names of the different flocks of birds, but somehow a grouping of woodpeckers is a "kettle". I was running errands today in the La Loma area of Modesto and passed Kewin Park, a notable birding spot in the middle of town. Dry Creek runs through the park, and a nice riparian habitat has been maintained along the length of the creek which ironically is often not dry (miles and miles of irrigated fields upstream provide runoff during the dry summer). I saw a gathering of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) so I jumped out and snapped a few pictures.
The woodpeckers live in communal groups in the oak woodlands of the west from Oregon to Central America. As their name suggests, they consume acorns. They store vast numbers of them in holes that they drill into tree trunks that are called granaries. Single trees can have tens of thousands of these stored acorns, and they are carefully guarded. One can often hear their distinctive 'waka waka' long before seeing them.
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