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.

A California Endemic, A Nuttall's Woodpecker on the Tuolumne Parkway

Sometimes I am just being a snot, by posting pictures of birds that no one outside of California can see unless they come here. There aren't that many birds that are endemic just to California, really just two (the Yellow-billed Magpie, and the Channel Islands Scrub Jay), but the Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) is one as well, as long as we count the northern end of Baja California as part of California (and why not?). There is a single record of one in Oregon.

This one was on the Tuolumne River the other day in its characteristic habitat of an oak woodland. Although they live almost exclusively among the oaks, they don't consume acorns. They mostly eat insects that they dig out of the bark, and occasionally they will eat native berries, like elderberries or poison oak.

A California Endemic, Nuttall's Woodpecker on the Tuolumne River

The Tuolumne River Parkway Trail has been closed for a couple of weeks while the operators of Don Pedro Reservoir try to build up some storage space by flooding the lower river. The waters have been flowing at around 10,000 cubic feet per second since early January. The emergency spillway was open for several days, increasing flows to 18,000 cfs, and putting portions of the trail underwater, but the spillway closed a few days ago, so the river level has fallen a little. I got down to the trail this afternoon, and except for one makeshift detour past a flooded stretch, I was able to follow the whole trail. And no one else was there. Except for lots of birds.

The most striking discovery of the day were several Nuttall's Woodpeckers (Picoides nuttallii) exploring the old cottonwood trees above the river. I haven't seen any since May of last year, so it was a bit of a delight. I wasted a lot of shots trying to hit fast-moving targets.

Along with the Yellow-billed Magpies and the Santa Cruz Island Scrub Jay, the Nuttall's Woodpecker is endemic to California (at least as long as you count Baja; about 1% of the population is found there). They live in the oak woodlands and chaparral zones of the state, although they don't consume acorns. They mostly spend their time search the crevices in tree bark for insects.

Nuttall's Woodpecker, a California Endemic, on the MJC East Campus

I don't see them that often, but the Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) is a California original. There are a few rare sightings in southern Oregon, and a fair number of sightings in Baja California, but Baja is part of California anyway (international boundaries are human things). They are showy enough that they get sighted pretty often, but the total population is estimated at about 600,000 birds, with 99% of them in California state. They are mainly prefer oak woodlands, although they have fared well in urban settings as well. It was in fact an urban setting where I saw this one.

People wonder why I always have a camera close at hand, even when running mundane errands. In this instance I was rushing to join the graduation ceremony at MJC on Friday when I heard an odd sound in the tree above my parking spot. I looked up and saw the woodpecker practically over my head. So I put down the robes, and got my camera out! You just never know when you'll see something and wish you had a camera.