Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat, what the heck is that?
The Alameda open space looks dead right now. Everything is dried out; the trees don't have any leaves and the forest floor is brown, brown, brown. Yet, if you take a long walk through the open space, it is abundant with life right now. The red-shafted northern flickers are courting and mating with some of the most interesting noises you've ever heard. Many other birds are mating a well. The woodpeckers are making all kinds of tat-a-tat noises as they drill into trees. They are hard-headed and strike a tree trunk at an astonishing 15 mph. The beaks on woodpeckers do wear down, but special cells growing on the tips of the beaks continually replace the lost material, keeping the beaks strong and sharp. Ladderback woodpeckers can strike a surface at over 100 strokes per minute and have built in shock-absorbing material in their beaks. Woodpeckers feed on insects and grubs. Albuquerque has a number of different types of woodpeckers: ladderbacks, red-shafted and yellow-shafted northe...