The Wonderful Woodpeckers of the Tuolumne River

One of the constant joys of birdwatching along the Tuolumne River along the Parkway Trail is the variety of woodpeckers who are almost ever-present along the walkway. Eight species of woodpecker have been reported in Stanislaus County. I see three of them on a constant basis, and I've seen two more species on rare occasions. The three I have yet to see are the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (very rare in our area), the Lewis's Woodpecker, and the Hairy Woodpecker.

Often the first one I will see or hear will be the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). A small colony of three or four of them live in a dead cottonwood tree near the west end of the trail. I often hear their distinctive call before I see them. They are usually busy hiding their precious acorns in the tree trunks, and spend a lot of time guarding their stores. Their faces make me think of clowns.

I often hear a chirp - chirp - chrrrchrrrrchrrrrr in the trees above the trail, high in the oak trees. It is a Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) which is about as close to being a California endemic species as a bird can be. They range just into the northern part of Baja, along with all of four sightings in Nevada, and a single sighting in Oregon. Although they are strongly associated with oak trees, they don't consume acorns. They are more interested in gleaning bugs from the furrows in the trunks of the trees.

The third of the common woodpeckers on the Tuolumne River is the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). They look less like "normal" woodpeckers, and behave differently in many ways as well. For one, they spend much of their time foraging for ants and beetles on the ground. I almost always hear their piercing call before I see them.

The "rare" woodpeckers, the ones I only see occasionally, include the Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents), and the Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber). I've only seen the Downy Woodpecker a half-dozen times in the past two years, and the Sapsucker only once, back in October. Across the entire county, there have only been a dozen or so reports of the Red-breasted Sapsucker this year (and none at all of the Yellow-breasted variety).

The sighting of Downy Woodpecker this morning was what got me thinking about how often I see woodpeckers along the Tuolumne Parkway Trail. I didn't get a clear picture this time, but I've included a picture from a few years ago. The Downy (and similar Hairy) Woodpeckers are similar to the Nuttall's Woodpecker overall, but the Nuttall's have bars across their back while the others have a vertical white band.

We've seen 116 species of birds on the Tuolumne trail this year. If you are patient (and willing the climb the stairway), it's a great place to practice your birdwatching skills.

Fighting Flickers on the Tuolumne River

I don't absolutely know that they were fighting, but it sure looked like it. In the early spring and summer the males might participate in a "fencing duel", but this is the fall. There may have been a territorial thing going on. But in any case I got to witness the spectacle of a pair of male Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) chasing each other from tree to tree along the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail the other day.

The Flickers are woodpeckers, but they spend a lot of their time on the ground searching for insects like beetles and ants. They'll peck the ground to chase down their quarry. They'll also eat berries at certain times of the year.

I'll often hear them before I see them. Their call is quite distinctive.

Northern Flicker on the Tuolumne River Bluffs (along with an Acorn Woodpecker)

I was out walking on the Tuolumne River as usual this morning, and saw practically no birds until I finished and had returned to the parking area at the top of the bluffs at the west end of the hike. I was actually driving out when I saw a different bird atop the nearly dead oak (it was a Mockingbird earlier). It was a male Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

It didn't immediately fly away, since I was using the car as a blind. I snapped a couple of pictures, and then noticed a second woodpecker a few yards away. That was odd, because it was a different species, an Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). I guess it was just kind of a woodpecker day.

Northern Flicker Hard at Work on the Tuolumne River

I see Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) quite often along the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail in Waterford, but they are usually quite busy flying from one tree to another. For a woodpecker, they spend a lot of time on the ground instead of pecking away at trees. It turns out they like to eat ants and other insects and will peck at the ground to get them. That's what made today's sighting a bit interesting. This one was working very hard at a gash in the cottonwood. I'm guessing it was excavating a nesting hollow. I was getting frustrated trying to get a clear shot of the bird at work and finally realized I would maybe have better luck with a video, so here you go...

It Was a Sign: Northern Flickers!

I've been missing in action as usual, and I wasn't sure what bird to feature next. I've got a backlog. One of the top choices I was looking at was a set of pictures that I caught of a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) that I took while on my usual walk along the Tuolumne Parkway Trail last week. I kept getting distracted with work and study and neglected to post anything for most of last week.

Then, this morning I was walking towards my office when I saw a bird perched far above on the fourth floor. It was a little weird to see a bird up there period but this one looked different from the usual dove or starling. I got out the camera and zoomed in to see what it was. It was a flicker! I finally realized it was a sign: post the pictures of the flickers...so here they are.

Northern Flickers on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail

I sure enjoy seeing Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus). They are colorful interesting birds who don't mind perching where I can catch the occasional picture. The first three or four times I saw them, it was in dark or foggy conditions, but I've been getting luckier these days. There are some dead snags along the nearly complete Tuolumne River Parkway trail in Waterford where they've been dependable sights.

The Flickers are a kind of woodpecker, and they do drum on trees and the like, but they also like to forage for bugs on the ground, probing with their long beaks. They have a distinctive call that lets me know when they are close by. I've watched them on our west campus chasing around and dancing their unique "fencing duel" against potential breeding rivals.

I've walked along the river trail three times in the last week, and I saw a couple of them each time. I imagine they'll stick around after the trail is finished and more people spend time along the river. There is a relatively wide riparian environment that provides shelter for Flickers and the other birds, and there were never any plans to develop a grassy barren park along the river. The trail will preserve and promote the river habitat.

I had a surprise today (which is kind of stupid, really, for as many time as I've photographed the birds). They have really bright tail feathers! They're usually in a tight narrow bundle, but the bird I saw today was flaring its tail feathers. A beautiful sight!

Northern Flicker on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail

I had an extraordinary walk by the river last week. Whether one gets pictures of birds can depend on so many things: the attention span of the photographer, the weather, the season, the time of day. I hadn't been seeing many birds on the last few walks, and I expected no different on this walk. I was mistaken. I ran across half a dozen species of birds in just one brush bower near the trail (I wrote about the birds in my blog Geotripper).

The first bird I saw on the river was a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). These members of the Woodpecker clan are one of the more strikingly colorful birds in our area. They don't act like woodpeckers all that often. They spend much of their time on the ground digging for insects in the dirt.

I've been learning a lot about birds during the last two years, but one area that I'm lagging is bird calls. I have problems hearing certain high-pitched frequencies, but I always know if there are Northern Flickers about. They have a distinctive call, and aren't afraid to utilize it.

The Tuolumne River is a treasure, and our town is building a two mile long parkway trail to highlight the value of the waterway here in the Great Valley of California. I'm looking forward to being able to walk the trail as a loop rather than an out and back walk past the sewage treatment center. The trail will probably be completed in the next three or four weeks. Come and check it out sometime!

Northern Flicker at the MJC Mini-wilderness

The Northern Flicker is such a lovely bird. I've been seeing more and more of them, and I am having a hard time understanding how I could have missed them in the past. I've seen them near my house, at Chaw'se Grinding Stone State Park, at the Joe Domecq Wilderness Area, on the bluffs above the Tuolumne River (almost every time I wander down there), and the Turlock Lake State Recreational Area. This week was a new locality, and it was somewhat of a surprise: it was on the west campus of Modesto Junior College, in my little "mini-wilderness". The area had been overrun with thousands of robins for several weeks during the week, but they've moved on, and other birds seem to be taking up residence. Up in the highest tree I spotted a unique shape and snapped a quick picture, and found upon closer inspection that it is the first Northern Flicker I've seen on campus.

I said yesterday that the Cedar Waxwings are the most colorful birds found in our area, but the Flickers give them a lot of competition.

Downy Woodpecker at Turlock Lake Campground

Okay, I was half-joking when I said in the last post that I would try to capture photos of a Downy Woodpecker for the next post, but that turned out to be what happened. We made a short excursion out to Turlock Lake in the afternoon to see what was out and about, and down in the campground area there was a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) in the tree above us.

The Downy Woodpecker is among the smallest of the Woodpecker family, and size is one of the ways one can distinguish it from the similar Hairy Woodpecker. The bill is shorter, too. It looks a bit like a Nuttall's Woodpecker, but the Downy has a white patch on the back, as today's did.

As is my usual pattern, I got a very fuzzy picture on the first attempt (two days ago), barely enough to identify it, and on the second try (today's attempt), I got sharper pictures, but not great ones (then again, do I ever?). Next time they will be marvelous!

The Downy Woodpecker is common and ranges widely across North America from Alaska to the Mexican border and the Eastern Seaboard. They are mainly missing in the deserts of the southwest. Which means I should have noticed them a long time ago!

Speaking of getting sharper, nicer pictures on the third sighting, check out the nice sharp sunlit photo of a Northern Flicker that was hanging out in the next tree over from the Downy Woodpecker. It was in interesting day, and a few more birds from this afternoon will make an appearance on the blog.

Northern Flicker on the Tuolumne River Bluffs

I was back down at the future river park on South Reinway Avenue, where the bluff overlooks the Tuolumne River. I've seen more than twenty species of birds in my few trips so far, and added two more today. But every time I've been down there, I've seen a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). Today there were two of them, a male and female.

The males have the red cheek spots, and the females don't. I didn't see them interacting, as they were on opposite ends of the park property. 

The Flickers are woodpeckers, but they don't search for much of their food in trees. They mostly consume ants and other insects on the ground (note the behavior in this previous post). They will peck at the ground in the way other woodpeckers peck at trees.

Like many other birds in North America, the Flickers, while still common, are in steep decline, due for the most part to habitat loss. There are approximately half as many as there were fifty years ago.

The Northern Flickers are beautiful colorful birds. I was pleased to be finally getting some sharper photos of them. There's a Downy Woodpecker lurking in the vicinity that I would like to catch next time.

Bird of the Day: Northern Flicker on a Gloomy Day

Right up front I want to say that these are not the best pictures I'll ever post here. They're pretty fuzzy and gray, and that's after some heavy duty alterations in the brightness and contrast settings. This is life today in the Great Valley. We've had just enough rain to keep the ground moist and the fog thick, but not enough to break the drought. So life right now is a dull shadowy gray color with the rare late afternoon sun sometimes breaking through for a few moments before sunset.

The gloomy weather didn't keep me from trying, though. I headed up along the Tuolumne River to the Joe Domecq Wilderness Park in the lower Sierra Nevada foothills to see what was out and about. I've seen Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) before, but it's been rare that I have caught sharp pictures (mainly these at Chaw'se). But there they were, a number of them flitting about through the trees. I took what pictures I could, as I slogged through the marshy grasses getting wet, cold feet.

We need rain and wind to break up the drought and the inversion layer. There's nothing on the horizon yet, but one can only be optimistic. At least with the fog the soil is staying wet, and perhaps there will be some better grass growth in the prairies in our region, a development that would be good for all of us, both humans and animals. In the meantime enjoy these beautiful birds.

Bird of the Day: Northern Flicker at Chaw'se Grinding Rock State Park

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) at Chaw'se

I've had four of the last five weekends taken up with field trip commitments. I would never complain about a job that sends me on the road with students, but it felt a bit hectic. So what did I do with my first free weekend in more than a month? I hit the road of course!

There was a difference this time. Mrs. Geotripper and I took a couple of folding chairs and set them up in the middle of the meadow at Chaw'se, the Indian Grinding Rock State Park in the Sierra Nevada above the Gold Rush town of Jackson. And we sat for two hours. We were at the park last week as one of the stops on our study of the geology of the Mother Lode, but the stop was short. This time we just wanted to sit and listen and watch for birds and whatever else might wander by.

I was rewarded with two new species, and a lot of other sightings. New species isn't much of a surprise, as I haven't been at this for long, but it's always fun, even if the bird is relatively common. I just haven't seen them for myself yet.

Today's bird is the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), a member of the woodpecker family that wasn't spending much time pecking at wood. It was foraging on the ground, looking for ants or beetles. The colors and patterns of the bird are striking and unmistakable!

I had seen the bird once before, fleetingly and fuzzy in the picture, in my neighborhood. This was the first opportunity I've had to actually frame and try to focus on the bird. I'm not quite satisfied yet, as it stayed in the shadows and at the extreme distance and high zoom it was hard to get the feather patterns as well as I wanted. And that will be my perfectly good excuse for heading up there again as soon as possible!

Chaw'se, the Indian Grinding Stones State Park, was featured last week in this blog. There will be a few more birds featured here from today's expedition in future posts, I'm pretty sure.