[cobirds] No baby shower for Acorn Woodpeckers in Pueblo Mtn Park

I drove down to Pueblo Mtn Park in Beulah this afternoon to see how the Acorn Woodpecker pair were doing with their apparent nestlings (a week ago I saw and photographed them bringing food to a nest hole and taking out what looked like fecal sacks as reported here).   I was surprised that there was no activity near the nest hole in the granary tree. After a while both a male and a female flew in to the granary tree but neither went to the nest hole in the bottom third of the tree.  I observed for close to an hour and neither bird go even near the nest hole.  After extended observation, I walked near the granary tree to listen for any sounds of nestlings but I did not hear any.  Both the male and female appeared to be bringing acorns or other food to store, then spending a lot of time finding the place to store it then pounding it in to the tree. 

One possibility is that one or both woodpecker is young, an apparent fairly common cause of nest failure for at least some species.  Another possibility is  related to the fact there are only two Acorn Woodpeckers at this location.  Many of these engage in communal breeding and 'Population Ecology of the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker' by Walter D Koenig and Ronald L. Mummethat note that 'various studies have found that the more birds taking care of the young the higher the success."

Otherwise it was fairly quiet in the park. There had been rain before I arrived and it started sprinkling while I was there. 

I did find a small flock of about 10 Band-tailed Pigeons in Beulah, photos uploaded to my Birds and Nature blog.

As I left Beulah around 6 pm I saw a group of 15-20 Common Nighthawks flying along the foothills.  I also spotted a Prairie Falcon and a Swainson's Hawk. 

SeEtta Moss
Canon City
Blogging for Birds and Blooms magazine @ http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/author/seetta-moss/
Personal blog @ BirdsAndBlooms.blogspot.com

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