Today, I got a copy of the photo that Pat Blume took of the woodpecker directly off from his computer, so I will be able to send a better quality photo of the same image. The camera he took the photo with was new and he had not set the proper date and time, so we could not establish an accurate day or time that he took the photo. He only took one image. He had taken images of a Pileated before this on the same suet cake. The best estimate of the date and time is Feb 18 between 10 & 11 am. I furnished him another suet cake today which he nailed to a tree next to his home since the gray squirrel stole the other one including the hanger.

On Friday the 29th of February, he said he was in his yard when he heard a woodpecker call. He looked up just as it flew away towards an old apple orchard. He thinks it was the same bird. At 3:00 pm today, I went looking for it on his property. I heard a woodpecker call down in the draw to the east of his house. There are mixed deciduous and evergreens in the draw including aspen, service berry, hawthorn, cottonwood etc.

The call was similar to a flicker in tone and pitch. "churrr", "churrr". Single calls several seconds apart. I spent the next hour in the mixed wooded area trying to get closer to the sound. It called a few times allowing me to zero in on the general area. At one point about 4:00 pm, I heard drumming. It was very soft and rapid and repeated about 6 times allowing me to get within about 50 feet of the sound high up in the evergreen trees.

Unfortunately, I never saw the bird nor heard it again during the next hour. I thought to myself that if it had been a flicker, it would have called as it fled the area as they usually do. Especially if it heard me approaching. This one just went silent and left unseen or it hid.

Weather permitting, I plan to try again tomorrow if anyone wants to join me at 10 am at the intersection of Brevier Rd and Adams Rd.

Ron Dexter
Spokane, Wa.
Email: (Ronpatdexter at msn.com)
509-468-2555