A Kettle at Kewin: Acorn Woodpeckers on Dry Creek

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.

Cooper's Hawk near Dry Creek in the Sierra Nevada Foothills

I'm digging into the archives today for some of my favorite shots from the last year. Last March 30, I was doing my daily walking north of Waterford at Dry Creek. There is a chick-processing plant north of the creek, and whoever lives next to it has their own little golf course. They left a dead tree standing next to a pond, and on that day I saw a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) for the first time.

Cooper's Hawks are said to be notoriously difficult to distinguish from a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), and I admit to feeling not completely confident in my identification here, going mostly by the rounded tail feathers. I'm open, of course, to gentle correction.

Cooper's Hawks generally feed on smaller birds, and they are expert fliers in heavy vegetation. They'll occasionally take small mammals as well. They range from southern Mexico to just north of the Canadian border.

It was a gorgeous bird. I felt lucky to get so many close up shots (from 80 yards away!).

Bird of the Day: What the Ground Squirrel Was Worried About...

We decided to avoid some traffic by parking along Dry Creek in downtown Modesto as the sun was setting. While we were there, we saw a bit of drama, although it was of the nuanced type. There were lots of Ground Squirrels living on the stream bank adjacent to the creek, and they were noticeably nervous, pacing, standing, and not going more than a few feet from their burrows. I looked around to see what was upsetting them, and eventually noticed a branch in the distant oak tree that didn't look exactly like a branch. I whipped out the camera (which I use in place of binoculars) and figured out what they were worried about.

How would YOU feel if you were only eight inches tall and saw this in the trees above you?

The Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), as I've noted before, has a very strange distribution. They are widespread around the eastern United States from New England to Texas and into Mexico. Then there is a west coast population, confined to Alta and Baja California, although a few have been noted in Oregon and Arizona.

Dry Creek rises in the Sierra Nevada foothills south of Jamestown, and flows through central Modesto where it joins the Tuolumne River. Although it does not have a wide riparian forest, a string of majestic oak trees can be found along its course in the Great Valley, and I need to spend more time finding what birds live there.

Dry Creek is supposed to be dry as the name suggests, but during the summer season irrigation overflow tends to keep the channel wet. In winter it is prone to flash floods, as very little snow falls along its upper reaches, so water gathers quickly during storms. Last year the channel was dry throughout most of the winter season as we suffered the third year of drought.