Sunday, 27 February 2022

[Maine-birds] Black-backed Woodpeckers

Sandi and I hit some more Maine Winter Atlas blocks in the Chamberlain Lake area over the last two days, completing three more late-winter blocks. It was very finchy there, too.

 

We had barely started this morning, when Sandi picked up a black-backed woodpecker drumming and got great views of a male just west of Chamberlain Lake. I wasn't so lucky in that block. The score remained 1-0 until I notched one and tied the score at 1-1 about four hours later on the Pinkham Road east of Chamberlain Lake. It was snowy and blowy, so woodpeckers were scarce in general today. The black-backed woodpeckers turned out to be our most abundant woodpecker species of the day.

 

Side note: I heard mine tapping in the woods just off the road, another male. He was tapping into a balsam. I've never seen one feeding on a balsam before. They definitely prefer spruce, and sometimes other rough-barked tree species. This was a first.

 

Bob Duchesne

Woodpecker Whisperer


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