<< Previous day Blog posts in this category Next day >>
<< Previous year (same day) (if any) Next year (same day) >>
July 14, 2009 [LINK / comment]
Rare woodpecker? Not quite.
I got a call from fellow Augusta Bird Club member Stephen Pietrowski yesterday, about a strange-looking woodpecker with a reddish crown that has been appearing in his back yard lately. He thought it might be a Three-toed woodpecker, a species which is found in the northern forests of Canada. It has never been reported in this region, so if true, this would have been an amazing sighting. So, this morning I went out to investigate, and after a half hour or so, the bird in question finally showed up. I managed to get a few photos from fairly close range while it was there, but of course the angle of the sun detracted from the quality of the images. Just as Stephan said, the crown is all red, unlike any other woodpecker around here except the Yellow-bellied sapsucker, which is a winter bird. After looking at it for a few minutes, however, the size and plumage left no doubt in my mind that it was just a Downy woodpecker, possibly a juvenile with some kind of hormonal imbalance.
After returning home and consulting my National Geographic Complete Birds of North America (the biggest of all my bird reference books), I learned that both male and female juvenile Downy woodpeckers "have a pale red patch in the center of the crown, more extensive in the male." (The same is also true for Hairy woodpeckers.) I'm surprised I didn't know that before; you learn something new every day. Anyway, thanks to Stephen for bringing this curious bird to our attention!
ABOVE AND BELOW: Red-crowned (juvenile Downy) Woodpecker, Staunton, July 14, 2009. Click on the bottom image to compare to an adult female Downy Woodpecker.
Bird miscellany
I forgot to mention that I finally saw some Purple martins a couple weeks ago, at the home on Springhill Road just north of Staunton where they usually reside, another first of year sighting. There weren't as many of them as in past years, but maybe it was the wrong time of day.
Here is a birding Web site that would have been very useful to Jacqueline and me six years ago: Birding Oaxaca Mexico. It's now included along with the other Wild Bird Web site links.
FACT CHECK: My brother John informs me that the photo of the Spoonbill I posted on July 1 was probably taken in Louisiana in 1998, not in Florida in 2000 as I had thought. I may replace it with a better photo if he sends me one.
Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 14 Jul 2009, 2: 32 PM
(unformatted URL) .
ALL blog posts today
New blog post entry
This post is over a week old, so comments are closed.
© Andrew G. Clem. All rights reserved. Your use of this material signifies your acceptance of the Terms of use.
Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:
Category archives:
(all years)
Baseball
Politics
Latin America
War
Wild Birds
Culture & Travel
Science & Technology
This (or that) year's
blog highlights
January 5, 2009 Illegal immigration: no problem
January 10, 2009 Bush's fiscal profligacy: a recap
January 20, 2009 Inauguration Day 2009
March 13, 2009 Tax revolt in Augusta County!
March 14, 2009 Mexican Army counterattacks
March 27, 2009 Facebook: resistance is futile
April 5, 2009 RPV chair Frederick is removed
April 8, 2009 Fujimori is convicted, again
May 3, 2009 (Very) Big Spring Day, 2009
June 12, 2009 Tiger Stadium memorial update
June 16, 2009 Home runs in New Yankee Stadium
June 28, 2009 Obama's health care proposals
June 29, 2009 House votes to regulate climate
July 7, 2009 R.I.P. Michael Jackson, Superstar
July 9, 2009 Conservative defeat in Mexico
August 16, 2009 Great Baseball Road Trip 2009
August 23, 2009 Road Trip 2009: The Birds of August
August 27, 2009 R.I.P. Edward M. Kennedy
September 7, 2009 Two clutch homers end Nats' skid
October 10, 2009 Republicans reunite in Verona
October 16, 2009 Health care polemics heat up
November 4, 2009 Republicans sweep Virginia races
November 5, 2009 Yankees are the 2009 champions
November 21, 2009 Senate votes on health care
December 23, 2009 Musings on health care "reform"
December 30, 2009 Decade of creation, and destruction
December 30, 2009 Whither the Republican soul?
December 31, 2009 A (half) decade of baseball in D.C.
Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.
Explanation
The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:
- Wild birds (LAST)
- War
- Science & Technology
- Politics
- Latin America
- Culture & Travel
- Canaries ("Home birds")
- Baseball (FIRST)
Also see: My blog practices.
Blog errata (Nobody's perfect.)