So now I know where the White-headed Woodpeckers were! Have just returned from
a family weekend birding/camping trip to Wenas (19-22 May), where we spent most
of our time around the Camp/Dry Creek Area looking for woodpeckers and were
surprised at the paucity of them in the 3 days there. Very few Downys, Hairys,
or Flickers, and no White-headed or Lewis. Red-naped sapsuckers were the only
common woodpeckers, in numbers that approached those of the past six of our
Spring visits. As an ironic note, we drove through the Umtanum Road on
Thursday afternoon, during an intermittent rainstorm, and saw as many
woodpeckers there as along the Wenas road or in the camprground. This
included 3 Lewis, but no
White-headed. It appears that these two species may need some particular
resource - nest sites or food sources - that may be more present along the
Umtanum Road than at Wenas this year.
As for Dennis' perception that bird numbers were down in Wenas this year, our
experience on this trip was that many species were scarcer there, including most
of the warblers and flycatchers, as well as Western Tanagers and woodpeckers.
But some other species were more abundant than usual, including Cassin's
Finches, bluebirds, House Wrens, and Black-headed Grosbeaks. It will be
interesting to see how the Audubon Campout fares.
We also spent a fair amount of time around Hardy Canyon, as much for scenery
and butterflies as well as birds. The grassland areas this year have been
overrun with a population explosion of Townsend's Ground Squirrels, a slender
gray rat-sized ground squirrel. You can hardly walk 20 feet in the grasslands
without seeing many burrows and hearing their high-pitched 'seet' alarm call.
Even driving the road towards Selah, we saw many of them running across the
pavement and in fields. But aside from a few Prarie Falcons, there seemed to
be no avian predators taking advantage of this bonanza. Badger burrows and
diggings were abundant in the Hardy Canyon grasslands,though, and they must
be thriving on the squirrels. For those interested in seeing badgers, the
grasslands on the south side of Wenas Creek at the Hardy Canyon entrance
were especially infested with burrows. We didn't see any badgers because
we were not there early or late enough in the day at the times of our
visits.
Rob Thorn, Seattle (rthorn at ups.edu)