We are in the final week of our favorite month and getting closer to our signature holiday – yep, Halloween is a mere 4 days away. Truth be told, we do celebrate this season a bit early with our Haunted Trail event typically being the last weekend in September. That is traditionally the best weekend weatherwise as it tends to nestle nicely between the late summer and the harvest rain periods. There is also a lot of things going on for our guests during the October weekends (football, marching band, trail races and other Halloween parties), so pulling the trail forward helps insure as many people as possible can attend. It does mean we are bit worn out by the time All Hallows’ Eve is upon us. I actually just finished getting all the props back into the storage shelves which is basically a colossal game of Tetris. Major concern as we packed as densely as possible and now appear to be out of space – will have to keep this in mind when considering new additions for next year’s haunt – my idea of using the guest bedroom was nixed by Linda before thought were fully out of my mouth!
While I sit on the phone waiting for the Canadian consulate to explain what kind of plague they infected our staff with, thought I would get out my last entry in this month’s “lifer” themed series.
Warning, these are not my best work in the field. In fact, this entire series was almost thrown out when going back through the day’s spoils. An Intrigued golden rule and late read of an eBird report saved them. We will see if you make the same mistake as I did when first seeing this specimen – after the jump.
Let me give you some background before I let you take your guess at today’s featured feathered friend. First, these were taken in Madera Canyon, Arizona. Yes, the exact same place most of the posts from this month have featured. Secondly, this was taken on the last day of March in …is the year really worth mentioning, it seems pretty irrelevant, just an element of information that doesn’t really have any bearing on your guess and as far as I can tell, birds don’t really give a crap about the year anyway. Let’s move on from that ..quickly. Okay, now you have the place and the time, now would be a good time to take your guess! You are allowed to look at this next picture first……but none of the following ones yet.
Perhaps you are familiar with the Picidae family (Woodpeckers) that hang out in the southwest. A good guess would have been the Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, but you already know to look for their yellow/orange patch on their nape (link here).
The female Gilded Flicker was another good option that probably caught your attention for a moment. Going through your internal checklist of features, you likely already caught the lack of a two toned head and the Flicker back striping is a combination of black and brown where this specimen is displaying more black and white. Almost had you there, but I can tell you rightly dismissed that option.
Single toned (tanned) head, black and white barring, a southern Arizona specialty … good try to trick us Bri, but clearly it is the Gila Woodpecker – pronounced ‘Hee-la‘. Well done, that is EXACT the same conclusion I came to in the field. As a sly validation of its “lifer” status, you might have even done a quick search on Intrigued to see if the Gila has been featured before … coming up empty as hoped. Honestly, I was a bit shocked when I did my own search and it came up empty as the Gila Woodpecker has been in my viewfinder previous to this encounter. It’s that reasoning that led me to simply take a few reference shots to verify the future eBird submission and went about hunting for the true “lifer” that was a catalysts for being in that location.
Took a few quick shots, verified it was the Gila and continued the search for the two lifers in the area – one you already know about from my last post – the Greater Pewee (link here). The other was the Williamson’s Sapsucker which was really annoying me. Based on its large size, distinct markings of practically all black with wide vertical wing patches and two white stripes on the face it should have been effortless to spot.
Soon after seeing the Gila, I spotted the Greater Pewee and the excitement made me forget all about the Williamson’s. It wasn’t until I made it back to the RV for the night that I noticed the Williamson’s was reported being seen earlier in the day – at the very spot I was at. How could I have missed it, I shot everything that moved in that area and yet spotted nothing resembling a smaller Pileated Woodpecker (link here). In the middle of conveying my disappointment to Linda, I noticed there was additional details on one of the birding checklists – ‘FEMALE’. Hmmmm, is it possible that the two genders are not monomorphic – to the reference books!
Sure enough, the female and male Williamson’s Sapsuckers do NOT look alike. The females sport a black and white striped back and light brown toned head/nape. Immediately grabbed my field backup drives and found the Gila Woodpecker reference pictures, zooming in looking for one very specific detail – a yellow patch on the upper belly. You just get a glimpse of it in the third photo, but this last image shows it prominently. Apologies for leading you on with the Gila ID, turns out this is really THE Williamson’s Sapsucker in female form. A case of mistaken identity in the field, saved purely by our general rule to always get at least one reference picture of all species found in an outing – in case those eBird reviewers get their panties in a bunch over one of our sightings.
Had I known it was the Williamson’s I would have taken a lot more time to get you decent shots and additional perspectives of this Sapsucker. To give you a few more insights on this Woodpecker family member, they have year-round regions in eastern California up into Oregon and then a few sparse all-year patches in middle sections of Arizona and New Mexico – there is also a small area in Utah. Those that migrate spend their non-breeding seasons down in Central America and outward pushes from their year round regions before pushing up and west for the frisky season. That looks like a Rorschach ink blot test as it makes its way to Washington and slightly into Canada – speaking of which it is about time someone in that consulate gets back to me!!!!
Cornell did provide some confirmation of my confusion by pointing out that the male and female Williamson’s Sapsuckers looked so different that they were considered different species until 1873 when Henry Henshaw spotted a pair in their nest – I find it quite disappointing that “The UPS” lady … or the Gila tryst wasn’t given more scrutiny before simply accepting this explanation – just saying.
For those keeping score, this is my 19th check in the Picidae family out of the 22 grouped in this category – sorry folks, the Ivory-Billed is extinct and thus not included in those numbers. I did go after the Lewis’s on our recent trip to the northwest without luck and still have my sights on hunting down the American Three-Toed and Black-Backed to close this family out.
Hope you enjoyed this latest addition to Intrigued. Take care everyone and if I don’t make it back before then, have yourself a hauntedly good Halloween. Now dammit, give me some answers Canada!!!
