It's just that time of year.....

I know, I just posted about woodpeckers. Walking through the open space I got to witness something that's never happened to me before, four different types of woodpeckers in one day. A yellow-shafted northern flicker, a type of woodpecker that I've only seen a couple of times, flew right at me with its wings wide open. The woodpecker landed in the dense part of a tree, and although I took several pictures, none of them were keepers. Then as I continued on my walk, I saw downy woodpeckers, red-shafted northern flickers, and finally a ladderback who was way too busy to give me much notice. 

Walking back on the trail, heading towards the parking lot, I heard that familiar sound of a woodpecker on a tree. I was pretty tired at this point but decided to turn around and go investigate. I'm glad I did; there was a beautiful male ladderback woodpecker with his bright red crown. Ladderbacks get their name from the 'ladder' of stripes that goes all the way up the back. Males have a red crown that extends from the eye to the back of the head. Females have the same pattern on their backs as the males, but instead of a red crown they have a blackish crown. They don't tend to fly for very long and are usually detected by their calls or by the rapid drumming(rat-a-tat-tat) on a tree. 

















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