Red-cockaded woodpecker

I'm currently in Florida spending some time with my brother and having fun, hence the long silence in posting.

On the drive to Orlando, one of my goals was to stop by the Apalachicola National Forest in an attempt to see the red-cockaded woodpecker. These woodpeckers live in specific trees located in the southern United States and are declining in numbers. An estimated 14,000 birds are all that remain of this species.

I stopped in Apalachicola to enquire about the possibility of finding this rare bird. I was directed to the nature centre, where a helpful lady called an avid birder. She relayed to me that I needed to head east over the bridge out of town, then turn north on state route 65 towards Sumatra. An aside: Although the same name as a large island in Indonesia, this Sumatra is pronounced with a short 'a' sound in the middle syllable where the island is an "ah" sound.

My adviser told me to drive north and keep my eyes open for trees marked with white painted bands around the base. These marked the red-cockaded woodpecker's colonies. These colonies appear to be clusters of trees that are near one another that several different birds nest in.

Several trees in the area had white bands painted around the base and a letter as well. Trees were marked 'A' through 'N'.

I drove north and almost caused a car crash when I saw the first white-banded tree. I jumped out, camera in hand and binoculars around my neck. Unfortunately, the bird was not waiting for me to snap his picture. I began to walk up and down the highway, as there were several trees with white bands along a 300 meter stretch of the road. Suddenly, I saw a bird with the distinctive undulating flight pattern of a woodpecker. It landed on one of the white-banded trees and my heart hit 200 beats per minute. But, this was one shy woodpecker and never came to the side of the tree so that I could see her! After 20 seconds she flew out of sight. Arrgghh! Soon the same bird came flying back and I whipped the binoculars up again, as this time she was in clear view. Nooooooooo! Just a red-bellied woodpecker.

I began to walk up the road towards the first tree when a smaller woodpecker flew into a tree about 20 meters off the highway. Again my pulse hit an erratic rate and the bins came up again. Yes! This was a red-cockaded woodpecker. I took out my camera and took a few distant snaps of this elusive bird. I feel very luck to have had the chance to get a two minute viewing of this rare and unique bird.

The red-cockaded woodpecker