Hey Gene,

I have Acorn Woodpeckers daily here in California. I've noted them taking the long slim acorns of Interior Live Oak, the smaller Coastal Live Oak, and Canyon Live Oak and putting them away. I've also seen them take the very large acorns from Blue Oak and Valley Oak as well as very large Engleman Oak. I think they are pretty adaptable and they do spend a lot of time with their granaries which range from Oak trees (convenient) and Telephone Poles, to Shake Roofs, Palm Trees, and even exposed styrofoam insulation. They are definitely comics and I relish watching them have contact with the flocks of Scrub and Stellars jays here in the canyons and with a Northern Mockingbird who has her nest in a granary palm. Two weeks ago I saw an Acorn woodpecker defend against and attack a fox squirred (introduced manace here with as many as 10 per acre) and knock it to the ground almost 40 feet below. They also defend their granaries from other woodpeckers, Ravens, and rats.

So fun that you are seeing Lewis' and Acorns peckers in Western WA. We've had two fantastic years in a row for acorns of all types in Northern California - maybe good broods and changing weather make for good dispersal.

On the slightly related front I've had Anna's, Allen's, Costa's, Black Chinned, and Broad Tailed Hummers at my feeders here in the hills of Oakland, and my sister (near Yosemite) had a Broad Billed Hummer for 2 days...she is supposed to send pictures. I did manage to get a look as a California Condor in the mountains of Santa Barbara county 2 weeks ago - quite a thrill.

Ain't birds fun?

Rob Conway
Oakland, CA

robin_birder at hotmail.com






From: enhunn323 at comcast.net
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:41:15 -0700
Subject: [Tweeters] Acorn Woodpecker still at Magnuson Park






Tweets,

Thanks to Kevin Aanerud and Adam Sedgley for posting the ACORN WOODPECKER report from Magnuson Park this morning.

After an early miss I got back to the 65th St. entrance about 12:30 to find about a dozen anxious twitchers milling about up near the entrance off Sand Point Way. Problem was, there were no oaks there, and thanks to Kevin I had seen a photo he?d taken of the bird this morning with a fat Red Oak acorn in its beak surrounded by Red Oak leaves, which was the definitive clue that the ?North Parking Lot? in question was the one down on the flat opposite the Marine Fisheries Center gate between the 65th St. entrance road and the new pond complex. This parking lot is ringed with exotic Red Oaks and the ones on the eastern margin were particularly large and with lots of acorns. A gang of Steller?s Jays was commuting from these oaks to their haunts south of the entrance road.

No sign at first of the woodpecker in question, but then at 12:45 it flew in from ?Promontory Point? to the southeast. We were all able to enjoy good views of it in the top branch of one of the largest oaks along the eastern perimeter of the parking area. About 1 PM it flew south across the entrance road to some large alder snags, paused a moment, then flew east back into the thick woods on Promontory Point.

It is likely that it travels a regular route between these areas, so if you go for a look be patient and it may fly back for more acorns.

This is the first documented King County record to my knowledge and one of quite a spate of western Washington reports since this summer. It occurred to me that the Red Oak acorns are probably too fat around to fit the standard Acorn Woodpecker hole, perhaps because Red Oaks and Acorn Woodpeckers nowhere co-occur naturally. Curious if this guy can learn to drill bigger holes.

Gene
Lake Forest Park, WA
Enhunn323 at comcast.net
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