The problem with black-backed woodpeckers is that they tease you mercilessly. They leave lots of clues to tell you where they were, and where they might still be.
I was recruited to do a birding weekend at the Flagstaff Hut of the Maine Huts & Trails, with a trailhead off the Long Falls Dam Road beyond Lexington Township. This is one of my favorite winter roads since it is the closest boreal habitat to central Maine. On a walk this morning, I was pleased to have a very cooperative boreal chickadee behind the hut, because the region was otherwise a birding desert this morning. This is a great road for finches, but there were simply none present. Fortunately, after the walk, a few diehards joined me on a little more exploration, mostly along the Carrying Place Road and North Bowtown Road, in the vicinity of Pierce Pond. One…yes, one…white-winged crossbill flew over.
But I pointed out the woodpecker signs to the others and was gratified to have a female black-backed woodpecker fly in soon after.
There is a straight stretch of the Long Falls Dam Road about a half mile beyond the Flagstaff Hut trailhead. There’s a frozen wetland on the right. On the left, there was so much woodpecker damage that the area screamed black-backed woodpecker. Some of it was so fresh, the stripped bark was sitting on top of the snow, obviously put there since the last storm. There is clearly a little bugger working those woods, but we ran out of time and didn’t locate it. But it’s got to be there. I’ll give a dollar to the first one who finds it.
Bob Duchesne
Woodpecker Whisperer
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