I haven’t posted about my the rest of my April Yellowstone weekend. I’ve been playing outside instead. Yesterday evening I took a drive up Lolo Creek. I stopped in a burned area to look for morels. I didn’t find any morels, but I did find something maybe better – a pair of black-backed woodpeckers. I could hear the noises of woodpeckers at work. Finding the bird themselves (black birds on scorched black tree trunks) was a matter of following my ears. Yesterday, I found the a male first, and, shortly thereafter, a female. It was dark and gloomy, being late in the evening of a rainy day. I returned this evening hoping to catch some photos in better light. I met partial success. This evening, I found the female, but not the male. I guess I’ll have to try again!
Black-backed woodpeckers are an uncommon-to-rare woodpecker that are “burnt-forest specialists.” They feed on beetles that are found in burned trees, by flaking the burned bark off of charred tree trunks.
The are in which I found them has several trees that have some bark flaked off, and some that have been extensively debarked – and a few tree trunks with the “dead trees make great homes” signs as above.
Yesterday evening, I observed the pair boring holes in one of the tree trunks – excavating nest cavities, perhaps? I hope so. Dead trees do make great homes, not just for fish, but for many bird species, too.
more photos here: http://www.bigskycountry.net/black-backed_woodpecker
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