My experience with Lewis’s at Finley was similar to what Lars noted. In the
late 1960s and very early 1970s it was a fairly common species on certain oaky
hillsides. They were easy to find in trees by the small pond at the upper end
of the refuge.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
During the period December 15-January 15, responses to e-mail may be slow and
irregular owing to workload and deadlines.
On Dec 16, 2019, at 1:38 PM, Lars Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
When l first visited Finley NWR it was a warm, overcast day in October of
1969. There were dozens of Lewis' Woodpeckers fly catching from the oaks
2-300m se of the restroom near Turtle Flats. Pretty much every sector of the
Corvallis CBC could be expected to detect the species. Gabrieson and Jewett
(1940) wrote of the species,"Summer resident in every part of state. Winters
more or less regularly in Columbia, Snake, John Day and Willamette Valleys
and mor commonly in Umpqua and Rogue River Valleys......exceedingly familiar
sight in Oregon from timber line on the highest peaks to the straggling
growth of willows and cottonwood along streambeds of the eastern part of the
state. "
The species wasn't considered newsworthy in field notes of local
newsletters in the first half of the 70s. I suspect the source of its decline
is manifold. I only recall seeing the species twice here on the westside in
the past 4 decades, one being a stakeout along Westside Drive that Pamela
Johston reported half a decade ago. Anthony Boutard, owner of Ayer's Creek
Farm on the Washington / Yamhill County line immediately se of Wapato Lake
had one excavate a nest hole on his property early in this century, but it
did not have a mate. At about the same time Acorn Woodpeckers appeared on his
property, after he removed the solid field of invasive blackberries beneath
his large oaks.
The specialized nature of Acorn Woodpecker habitat causes many of us to
perceive it as a struggling species, but l'm pretty sure its numbers have
been on the rise and its range expanding throughout the past 100 years. When
G&J was published in 1940 they cited a single record from Lane County and
none to the north.
