Crow's Nest Preserve - The hunt for the Red-headed Woodpecker, A BCDC Trip

 

Adult Red-headed Woodpecker - Photo by Bill Kemmerer

       Sunday, Jan 12th was a cloudy day with less than wonderful visibility. Nine intrepid BCDC members carpooled to the Crows Nest Preserve owned by Natural Lands Trust at French Creek State Park. From there, Debbie Beer of NLT led the trip with an additional 15 people. We headed down the very soggy path toward the creek.  The first bird seen was a Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Next, everyone had decent looks at a Red-headed Woodpecker in a forested area sitting atop a dead tree stump.  We strode on until the path became so wet and muddy that the group had to turn around. During our return, the original Red-headed Woodpecker was joined by two more adults and were seen by most of the participants. We then hiked on the road to the other end of the trail adding Northern Flicker, Cedar Waxwing, Bluejay, Goldfinch, Swamp Sparrow, and a Red-tailed Hawk among other birds. At the end of the hike we saw a Downy Woodpecker pair near the NLT office. We tallied 26 species in all for the day.