woodpecker math

As I approached the pond this morning shortly after dawn, the first bird I saw was a Brown Creeper. The next two birds were a Blue-headed Vireo and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. Did some birds come in last night? I think so.

Besides the above, the following birds were in the area just back of the pond -- a wet swale surrounded by bushes and trees, dead and alive bushes, all bathed in warm early-morning sunshine: Eastern Wood-pewee, Eastern Phoebe (singing!), Yellow-rumped Warbler (many), an unidentified all yellow warbler (possibly an Orange-crowned but not well seen), a calling nuthatch that sounded like a Red-breasted, many Song and Swamp Sparrows plus a few Chipping. The large numbers of American Robins (many of them young birds) and Blue Jays strongly suggested that some of these had just arrived as well. A Marlin and a Cooper's Hawk may have been new arrivals or holdovers.

My woodpecker math was quite defective. We have three breeding species (Downy, Red-bellied and Flicker) and a fourth which is now quite regular (Hairy). That would make a quadfecta. The Sapsucker makes five (a pentfecta?). Of course, a Red-headed Woodpecker would be a sixth (a hexfector?) if one every showed up.

Eric Salzman