Adair County Park. Acorn Woodpeckers, oaks and more

[Don Boucher]

On Saturday, Oct, 18, I led a nature walk at Adair County Park (in Adair Village).

The Acorn Woodpecker colony stole the show. They were very active and noisy at times. They love the groves of Oregon White Oak at the park. 

I recorded audio with my phone. At first I thought they might be alarmed about a predator but it seemed they were very noisy about socializing. There was no hawk or owl present.

https://youtu.be/a1551kgaxU8

I put it up on YouTube with a low-res photo of an Acorn Woodpecker. In the past, people have had trouble playing attached audio files.

We looked at oak galls made by tiny wasps. There were oak apples (made by the California Gall wasp, Andricus quercuscalifornicus) and speckled galls (made by Speckled Gall Wasps, Cynips mirabilis)

We heard a Varied Thrush and listened to the bird-like calls of Townsend's Chipmunks. White-breasted Nuthatches are very common in this park, A male American Kestrel perched on the top of a small tree for all to see. We watched a Great Blue Heron glide down to one of the fields where it was presumably hunting for rodents.

We looked at and compared the dirt mounds of Camas Pocket Gophers and mole mounds. Judging by the size of the mole mounds, it might have been a Townsend's Mole but I can't be certain. In general, gophers make fan shaped mounds with a visible excavation hole to one side while moles make round, symmetrical mounds and the excavation hole is buried directly beneath the mound.

There was a decent-sized aerial yellowjacket nest in a tree next to the disc golf parking area. It was high enough that it probably never caused any trouble for park visitors. I suppose it was a Bald-faced Hornet nest by the size since Common Aerial Yellowjackets are smaller and have smaller colonies. But without seeing any wasps, I can't be sure.

Birds observed:

Cackling Goose (fly by), Canada Goose (fly by), Great Blue Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Acorn Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, Steller's Jay, California Scrub-Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Bewick's Wren, European Starling, Western Bluebird, Varied Thrush, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, American Goldfinch, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Yellow-rumped Warbler

A park employee saw that we had binoculars and told us that Cooper's Hawks regularly nest on the north side of the park. Something to go check out next spring for sure.

Don Boucher

https://neighbohood-naturalist.com