Late afternoon on Sunday I pulled into the Anchor Pub to check out the scene. The bar was attended by the usual suspects mostly, including my buddy Ozz, who knowing me to be a nature freak, excitedly motioned me over to the bar and whipped out his cell phone. "Hey Jeff, check this out" he said, and showed me a phone photo of a dead Northern Flicker he'd found.

"Looks like it was on the River Road" I said , briefly wowing the crowd with my psychic abilities. Although I do have psychic abilities, I didn't really need them in this case as I'd just come off the River Road myself (between Snohomish and Everett) and seen a road kill flicker and knowing Ozz rides his bike out there sometimes ,I figured it was the same bird. "You saw it !" everyone exclaimed. " Didn't just see it, I got it" I said, going out to my truck to get the bird.

As the de facto Director of Nature Education at the Anchor Pub I encourage such moments of spontaneous nature sharing and have had some interesting photo's, stories, and occasionally carcasses brought in by interested folks. The flicker was in good shape, except being dead- a truly beautiful bird. Some folks knew flickers from their bird feeders. Some knew it as the bird that beats on the side of their house. And many had never seen one at all before, especially close-up. In a mini seminar I pointed out the stiff tail-feathers, distinctive feet (two toes forward, two toes back), and long tough beak (which was sticking out post mortem) which are woodpecker traits. That was all interesting, but mainly a gorgeous bird, even dead.

This bird was a male "red - shafted". I read in Seattle Audubons Birdweb, that some intergrades have a red nape crescent (like a yellow shafted). This bird got whacked exactly on the nape so I couldn't see for sure, but there were a few touches of red at the edge of the area. Other than a few missing nape feathers it's about a perfect specimen.

Currently our only other specimen is our deceased Aplodontia (which I posted about back in may) which is presently bagged and frozen and awaiting delivery to the Burke Museum when I can get to Seattle. Meanwhile it's providing more nature education since, when discovering a fellow nature nut during bar conversation I'll ask "hey, wanna see our frozen mountain beaver ?". We don't even charge extra for that.

Jeff Gibson
Anchor Pub
1001 Hewitt Ave
Everett Wa