As I came down the driveway, back home from the walk, I heard the chattering rattles of \u201cour\u201d Red-headed Woodpecker in the area where it so often seems to be \u2013 in the oaks that spread below the end of our driveway and up a slope to the edge of our neighbor\u2019s yard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woodpecker was clinging to the side of a large pecan tree at the corner of our neighbor\u2019s house where I have watched it several times. Its brilliant, flashy colors stood out so brightly that I realized the young woodpecker now seems to be almost completely in mature plumage. When I first saw it, it was rather brownish all over, with a totally brown head. Its head now looks almost completely bright red, with just a little brown still showing around the edges. With its snow-white breast and panels in the wings, and its black back and wings \u2013 it is stunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I watched as it did something in this pecan tree \u2013 perhaps storing more food there, though I wasn\u2019t sure. Then it flew \u2013 calling its loose rattle as it did \u2013 back to the trees below our driveway. And for a few minutes, I watched as it flew back and forth among the nearby trees. It called frequently \u2013 very vocal! But I wasn\u2019t able to see it well enough to see exactly what it was doing in each tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been very lucky to have this young Red-headed Woodpecker spend the winter season in trees so close around our home. And not only is this one special enough \u2013 but I\u2019ve also heard the calls of Red-headed Woodpeckers from at least two other locations behind homes on our road, fairly widely spaced. In both of these areas, there are lots of trees and wooded spaces, in areas that slope down to a creek. Because they are pretty far back away from the road, I have not seen any of the others \u2013 but I hear their calls almost every time I walk along this road \u2013 and have been able to confirm this with Merlin.So this winter here in Summit Grove seems to be a rare Red-headed Woodpecker winter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I came down the driveway, back home from the walk, I heard the chattering rattles of \u201cour\u201d Red-headed Woodpecker in the area where it so often seems to be \u2013 in the oaks that spread below the end of our driveway and up a slope to the edge of our neighbor\u2019s yard. The woodpecker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2520,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}