[Umpqua Birds] Jim's Chevy Pond Woodpecker

From: Matthew G Hunter <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
To: umpquabirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:42:59 -0800
Jim and Liz and all fans of birds in our beautiful and diverse Umpqua Basin,

The distribution of Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers is a fascinating study no
matter where you look in Oregon.  Depending on the context and location you
are speaking of, either species could truly be either quite common or quite
rare. Let me explain, and I'll narrow this to Douglas County, as it gets
more complicated statewide.

In Douglas County:

Downy Woodpeckers are primarily associated with the presence of deciduous
trees: oaks, alders, ash, cottonwoods, willows, etc. Thus, they are quite
common at lower elevations, foothills, and extend into the increasingly
coniferous mountain ranges (Coast Range and Cascades) primarily along river
corridors (alders, cottonwoods, willows) and sometimes in burns or heavily
harvested areas with relatively small-diameter conifers and/or a lot of
deciduous growth (and snags). Exceptions, where they occur in the middle of
a conifer forest, are usually associated with a flush of bark beetle
activity (such as after a fire).

Hairy Woodpeckers are primarily associated with conifer trees and to some
degree with medium to large diameter trees. Thus, they are quite common in
the Cascades and Coast Range mountains and somewhat common in the mixed
conifer-hardwood forests that surround the valleys. However, in the valleys
themselves---picture strings and patches of ash, oak, willows, etc., next
to fields and pastures and wetlands---Hairy Woodpeckers are decidedly rare.

Data from the Roseburg-Sutherlin Christmas Bird Count (CBC)(7.5 mi radius
circle centered approximately at Wilbur) at the bottom of this message
illustrate this. While there is a fair amount of conifer forest within the
CBC circle, coniferous habitat gets relatively little coverage and people
mostly bird the lowlands and more mixed woods. Thus, the CBC ends up with
an average of about 10 Downys to 1 Hairy Woodpecker, and you can see how
many times (about 25% of years)---when 20-30 people were spread out looking
for birds ALL DAY---Hairy Woodpecker WAS NOT FOUND!

Thus, I would be very surprised to see a Hairy Woodpecker at Chevy's Pond
(the little pond across Church Rd. from Ford's Pond). I doubt I've ever
seen one there, and I would very much desire details, as differentiating
Downy and Hairy..., well, sometimes it's obvious which one you have, but
sometimes they are easy to mix up (their differentiation is worthy of a
separate discussion).

TO ALL OF YOU: Which species do you have at your home, or your area of work
(e.g. if you work outside for USFS or BLM or ODF or SWCD or USFWS???)?   At
our place in Melrose, where we have some pure oak but more mixed
oak/conifer, I detect Downy Woodpecker on about 80-90% of my wanderings and
Hairy Woodpecker on about 10-20%.

Check out those woodpeckers!!!

Matt Hunter
Melrose, OR

[The following data come from http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/
I hope the following table comes through as readable on freelists. If not,
I'll post it somewhere else. DOWO=Downy Woodpecker, HAWO=Hairy Woodpecker]

ROSEBURG-SUTHERLIN CBC DATA
  Year
DOWO HAWO  1974
2 1  1975
10 1  1976
18 9  1977
9 3  1978
11 2  1979
7 2  1980
25 4  1981
31 2  1982
14
 1983
10
 1984
10 2  1985
18
 1986
25 2  1989
14 1  1990
17 1  1991
12 1  1992
22 2  1993
21
 1994
7 1  1995
15 4  1996
14
 1997
13
 1998
21
 1999
16 2  2000
13
 2001
12 3  2002
12
 2003
15 2  2004
10 4  2005
14 2  2006
16 1  2007
16 1  2008
14 2  2009
9 3  2010
13 1  2011
14
 2012
14 1
[Umpqua Birds] Jim's Chevy Pond Woodpecker

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