Long ago, in the early 1990's when our daughter studied at Wells
College, on one of my many trips there, I wandered back into the woods
behind the Wells dorms. There I saw my first RHWO. There was no eBird
then, and I may have noted it down with my informal tick-off in my field
guide.
It was many years before I saw my next RHWO along Coddington Rd and most
recently my greatest surprise(2019) when I looked out our dining room
window & saw a RHWO perched on our feeder not 5 feet away! Only a few
seconds before he flew off across the backyard. Here's my entry from eBird:
Mistry backyard, Tompkins, New York, USMay 21, 2019 6:45 PM
Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) 1 RED-HEADED
WOODPECKER appeared briefly at our feeders next to dining room window;
stayed for about 15 seconds before flying off eastwards over next yard.
Not long enough to get a photo. Observed by Nari & Gin Mistry.
(Definitely NOT a Red-Bellied Wdpkr. which we have every day.)
-- Nari Mistry, Ellis Hollow Rd.
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Subject: Re: RHWO at Long Point
From: Alicia Plotkin<t...@ottcmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2020 16:14:07 -0400
X-Message-Number: 3
In 2011 many birders, including my husband & me, went over to the Aurora
to see the nesting RH Woodpeckers at Paines Creek, easily visible and
audible from Rte 90. This is abt 1/2 mile north of Long Point. A
gentleman who said he lived in Aurora stopped to chat with my husband &
me. He seemed surprised by all the birders and said he had seen RH
Woodpeckers in Aurora since he had moved there from Mississippi, where
he said they were pretty common, abt 10 years before. He also directed
me to a second nest further north on Rte 90 - he said he met his kids
there when the bus dropped them off from school so had noticed the nest
tree while waiting, and he suspected these weren't the only two nests in
and around the village but they were the only two he knew of that
spring. I went and easily found the second nest with his directions.
There is only a scattering of eBird reports for Aurora: 1972, 1990,
1996, 2008, and 2011 (many). Yet in 2011 the gentleman from Mississippi,
who seemed quite reliable (and definitely knew the difference between a
Red-Bellied & Red_Headed Woodpecker) said they were there every year.
Does anyone in Aurora enter RH Woodpeckers in eBird when they see them,
or otherwise keep track of them? Does anyone else regularly check out
the Aurora area for them?
Just curious about whether they are usually absent or only usually
absent from birding records.
Alicia
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