This morning (Sun 7 July) I went to Montezuma seeking the Red-headed Woodpeckers which Bill Roberts reported he and Tom Riley saw along South Mays Point Road this past Wednesday, 3 July. There have been several reports of the species this year and last year in the north basin, but they've been tough to re-find. One was seen only by folks in the car behind me on a trip I was supposedly leading! I tried not to get my hopes up, but I thought this report was most likely to pan out even though it was 4 days old, because there were 2 birds and the habitat seems perfect, at least to me: lots of dead trees and open woods in a wetland. Still, I made this my first stop and figured on spending most of the day there waiting for them if necessary.
After a late start - not wanting to send any over-anxious vibes - I arrived at the parking lot opposite the corral 8:45, and no one else was there. Trying to be cool, I couldn't help checking out the view across Mays Point Pool from the platform, where I saw a couple of flying BLACK TERNS in non-breeding plumage (According to Sibley these should be juveniles, because adults shouldn't molt until August.), a pair of PIED-BILLED GREBES constructing and walking on a platform of vegetation next to a lone cattail in the middle of the pond, and a female BALTIMORE ORIOLE bringing food to a nest nearly at eye-level in a dangling branch of a cottonwood as I looked left.
Then I wandered down the road listening to YELLOW-THROATED and WARBLING VIREOS and a CERULEAN WARBLER, and not even having to fake interest. Meanwhile another car had shown up, and a couple of birders were down by the bend in the road with binoculars trained on one of the dead trees. Charles & Lisa Rouse obligingly pointed out the first of 2 adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS clinging fairly low on a trunk. Then we saw it fly to a larger snag and perch at an old woodpecker hole just above a big fork in the tree. It went inside, and poked its head out several times to spit mouthfuls of wood chips. Meanwhile my companions said another Red-headed Woodpecker was on the opposite side of the far fork of the same tree. We walked down the road a bit to see at the same level a second adult reaching into another old hole (the lowest of 3) and also tossing out mouthfuls of wood chips. It was a beautiful scene with symmetrical excavating Red-headed Woodpeckers, but perplexing. Are they a post-breeding pair setting up individual roosting cavities? Are they the same gender and hoping to each raise a family here? Are they a couple who just can't quite agree where to nest? Anyway this is a great photo op: The birds were tolerant of us on the road, sometime flying to dead trees even closer to us, and the stand of dead trees is northwest of the road, which is good for morning or mid-day light. Sometimes they would fly into the strip of live trees in back, along the pond behind the dam on the Clyde River, but not for long, and there were other birds to hold my interest until they returned: a pair of GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS, a pair of AMERICAN REDSTARTS, a singing male INDIGO BUNTING, 2 baby EUROPEAN STARLINGS peering hopefully out of a hole in another dead tree, 37 TREE SWALLOWS perched on various dead branches, five OSPREYS circling noisily overhead... So, I recommend this place: 42.9961, -76.76242
--Dave Nutter
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