I had an astonishing day today--I saw 20 sapsuckers in/near Canon City in 3 hours of birding! Following is the tally:
- Lakeside Cemetery: 5 male and 3 female Williamson's Sapsucker - Rouse Park: 2 male Williamson's Sapsuckers - Centennial Park: 2 female Williamson's Sapsuckers - Canon City School Admin: 1 female Williamson's Sapsucker - The Abbey: 2 female Williamson's and 1 male Red-naped Sapsucker - Just outside Canon City: 1 male and 3 female Williamson's Sapsuckers The latter location is the one I have previously posted on that is near Canon City where I have observed 1 male and 1 female Williamson's in the non-native (siberian-like) elms. There are only 2 elm trees, both with multiple trunks (but less than 20 feet tall), in a dry wash in which these sapsuckers are feeding so as I watched 4 sapsuckers appear in these trees it was as though there was a magician who was pulling sapsuckers (instead of rabbits) out of his hat and releasing them into these trees. Needless to say there was not enough 'tree' for these pretty territorial birds so they spent a lot of time chasing each other away from their favorite sap wells and occasionally off the trees and into the surrounding pinyon-juniper habitat. This is far more than have ever been seen in and just outside of Canon City before. And I didn't even get to check some of the secondary locations that are on private property and where I have seen fresh sap wells. So I believe there are more than 20 sapsuckers here at this time. This causes me to wonder why the explosion of sapsuckers this year. One thought is that this is actually a late migration and for some unknown reason they decided to stop-over here. Another thought is that this may be an indication that at least Williamson's Sapsuckers are wintering a significant distance north of their usual wintering area like many other birds documented in *2010 U.S. State of the Birds Report *(yes, we need to see if they stay for the winter and if this is repeated in future years). I have uploaded some photos I took today of a few of these sapsuckers and will add more later to my BirdsAndNature<http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/>blog. SeEtta Moss Canon City--Sapsucker Winter Headquarters http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com <http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
