Red-Breasted Sapsucker at the Dunes

I don't get many chances to see Red-breasted Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus ruber). They live in our area, and I've seen them at Modesto Junior College, Cal State Stanislaus, and on my beloved Tuolumne River, but only a few times at each spot. We are on the road for Thanksgiving up in Oregon along the Pacific Coast, and we were taking a short walk today at Holman Vista near the beautiful town of Florence.

At first we didn't see a single bird, but once we reached the vista point itself and stopped moving, the birds started making themselves known, including a Wrentit, some Northern Flickers, a Spotted Towhee, and a juvenile Bald Eagle soaring high overhead. But it was the bright red head of the Sapsucker that really caught our attention. It was moving around a lot, but settled on a tree trunk for a moment, allowing me to get a couple of shots.

Sutton Creek, which flows below Holman Vista, is part of a deflation basin. Historically this area was a dune system, but the planting of a European dune grass sort of "overstabilized" the dunes. The grasses trapped sand right along the beach forming the higher ridge seen on the left. Beyond the beach however, wind blew away the sand, leaving behind a basin in which trees and shrubs could take root. Occasional ponds and streams provide water and food, so a large variety of birds and other animals moved in.

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 New Bird on the Tuolumne Parkway Trail: A Red-Breasted Sapsucker

Every walk is a potential discovery, and you never know when it will happen. I've been walking the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail around four times a week for the three years since it opened, carefully recording the bird species that live there. At the beginning I would never have suspected that the total would exceed 100 species, but to date there have been 125 species recorded. After three years, discoveries of new species are rarer events, but they still happen. There were three new species seen during the summer.

I was walking yesterday evening and the Acorn Woodpeckers and European Starlings were in their normal places on the two dead cottonwood trees near the west end of the trail. The birds often squabble among themselves and chase around the branches, and I almost walked on, but the coloration on one of the birds seemed off. I took out the camera and scanned and saw a woodpecker, but it wasn't the Acorn variety. It was a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber).

The Red-breasted Sapsucker isn't a totally unexpected sight in the valley. I've seen one at Modesto Junior College, and another at CSU Stanislaus. But there have only been five sightings of the bird in the county so far this year.

The Tuolumne Parkway Trail runs for two miles along the river where it flows from the Sierra Nevada foothills into the Great Valley at Waterford. The trail, with an eighty foot stairway, has become a popular exercise spot for the community, with some fine fishing as well. But it is also a marvelous place for birds!

Nature's Alarm Clock: Red-breasted Sapsucker in the Humboldt Redwoods

It was for all intents and purposes the perfect campsite. It was out on the edge of the campground next to a beautiful meadow at Albee Creek in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The neighbors were quiet. It had been a serene night and I slept as well as I have in many months. The morning came gently, soft sunlight glistening through the trees.

And then all of the sudden someone was playing drums in the middle of the campground! My pre-conscious state caused me to rise suddenly in indignation as I prepared to confront the rude camper, but once awake I realized we were being greeted by a woodpecker of some sort.

It's a little frustrating to go birding in a deep forest if you are poor of hearing or not well-versed in bird calls, but woodpeckers are in a class by themselves. If they are at work, it doesn't take too long to locate them. I grabbed my camera and I sighted the bird almost immediately. To my great delight it was a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) drumming on the hollow shell of a dead redwood tree. I've only seen them a couple of times through the years.

You all know I exaggerate about everything, so I made a video of the woodpecker at work. Turn up the sound!

A Surprise Discovery at MJC: A Red-breasted Sapsucker

There's something I've learned with fossil and mineral hunting. If you haven't seen the thing you are looking for, you won't recognize it when you see it. But if you've seen an example of the fossil or mineral, you'll pick it out right away. I'm still a newbie at bird identification, but a few weeks ago I saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) in Yosemite Valley. I got all excited and got pictures and posted on my discovery that night.

Then, only nine days later, I was wandering the campus of CSU Stanislaus and much to my surprise I saw another Red-breasted Sapsucker! So I posted on the species again. Having seen it once, I guess I was primed to recognize it right away when I saw it again.

So here we are eight days later. I was taking a break between classes and wandered out to the sheep compound, my MJC "mini-wilderness", and saw another woodpecker deep among the branches of a dead tree. I focused in with the camera, and wouldn't you know it, there was another Red-breasted Sapsucker! I've never encountered one here before. So once again, I am posting. It the pattern holds, we should be hearing of the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail Sapsucker discovery any day now...

A Surprise at CSU Stanislaus: A Red-breasted Sapsucker

A few weeks ago I was in Yosemite Valley and saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker, and was properly thrilled to get a couple of half-decent shots. Since I've only seen them in the mountains, I wasn't thinking about them as I walked this afternoon on the campus of CSU Stanislaus. It's an urban campus of course, but there are two "sort-of" natural areas, a pond called Willow Lake that is heavily grown with cattails and tule reeds on one side. The other is the Trans-California Pathway, a kind of reconstruction of the native vegetation from the Sierra foothills to the valley. I was walking through the oak grove at the west end of the pathway thinking how I had not seen any woodpeckers in a long while.

And then I saw one!

I assumed it was the 'usual' Nuttall's Woodpecker or Acorn Woodpecker, but when I focused in I saw the red head and immediately realized it was something unexpected: a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber). They've certainly been seen in the area (especially by fellow nature-blogger Siera Nystrom), but not all that often. It was a nice little surprise for the day.

That Quiet Tapping You Hear? It's a Yosemite Red-Breasted Sapsucker

It was the quiet tapping that threw me. I was in Yosemite Valley on Friday, leading a geology field studies course. I had a bit of free time, so I walked along the Merced River in the vicinity of the Camp Curry tent village. I wasn't seeing or hearing very many birds. But then, as I was stepping up the banks of the river to meet my students, I heard a quiet tapping noise.

If I was in the dark house of a horror movie, the tapping would have been terrifying, but out in the woods it was just curious. I thought "woodpecker" of course, but I'm used to the sound of woodpecking being very loud. I started searching the trees overhead, and soon found the source of the noise: a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber). I saw one of these when I was in Washington some time ago, but this was the first I've seen here in California.

The bird comes by its name righteously. It punches horizontal lines of shallow holes in the trunks of trees, causing them to bleed sap, which the Sapsucker laps up. The sap also traps bugs, so several other kinds of birds will find sustenance from the Sapsucker's handiwork.

I was pleased that the bird could care less that I was standing beneath the tree. I even had enough time to get a few seconds of video of the bird at work.

A Red-breasted Sapsucker in Washington for Christmas

Merry Christmas all! I didn't really expect to have a Christmas bird today, but later on in the afternoon I walked to a park in Renton, just south of Seattle, Washington. I heard a drumming in the pines over my head, and was lucky enough to spot a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) high above. I got a couple of shots before it disappeared.

The Red-breasted Sapsucker is a bird of the West Coast, ranging from Southern California to Alaska, but never ranging farther east than the Sierra or the Cascades. They prefer the lower elevations of coniferous forests. The "sapsucker" name refers to their practice of drilling a linear series of holes in tree trucks that starts sap running. The birds then can consume the sap itself (by lapping it up, not sucking) or feeding on the bugs that become trapped in the sap.

It was a pleasant Christmas surprise to see a new bird, the third new bird seen on this trip!