I was down in north central Oregon last weekend. We own a piece of property in the oak and pine woodlands east of Mt. Hood (near Dufur, OR). According to Handbook of Oregon Birds (Herlyn and Contreras, 2009) this area is an important wintering habitat for Lewis' s Woodpeckers and late September is when they start storing acorns. Last year at this time the oak trees were heavy with ripe acorns and the woodpeckers were everywhere (I observed 8 Lewis's on our property in a two hour period on September 26, 2009 ). This year acorns are hard to find and the woodpeckers are too (last weekend I saw 3 on our property over the course of 2 days Sept 25, 26 2010). When I began seeing all of the post about Lewis's Woodpeckers showing up in unusual places I immediately thought it might be due to the poor acorn crop.

Dave Catterson
Olympia WA
davecatterson at q.com


On Sep 30, 2010, at 8:45 PMSep 30, 2010, Joseph V Higbee wrote:

> After reading Dennis' thought about an acorn crop failure I thought I should report what I saw in such an area this week.
>
> I was down in an oak forested part of Klickitat Co. earlier this week looking in part for a pair of Acorn Woodpeckers I found nesting there earlier this year. At that time I also saw Lewis Woodpeckers in the same vicinity. The most I could find this trip were 3 flickers. Being disappointed and wondering why, I started looking for acorns on the trees and on the ground. I found some of the 'hats' on the trees, but only occasionally a complete acorn. What ones I found under the trees were broken but a few were not. At least one that I broke open was rotted inside. It seemed to me very little food even for leftovers. The squirrels were also very scarce.
>
> What these observations mean I'm not experienced enough to know but maybe someone could comment on what would be expected at this time of year in that area.
>
> Joseph Higbee
> Spanaway, WA
> Mailto: jvhigbee at hotmail.com
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