[cobirds] Black-backed Woodpecker

Greetings All

Sorry for the very delayed post, but Alec Hopping and I did not return to our hotel in Craig last night until after 9pm and were up at 2:15 AM today. 

I am very familiar with the calls of BB Woodpeckers (especially from survey work in Maine and seeing them in the mountains of Washington during my 18 years there) as well as Three-toed Woodpeckers. 

We first heard the drum of the Black-backed (location given below). Alec and I heard both heard the drum, looked at each other, and Alec said something to the effect of "Did you hear that drum. Sounds like a Black-backed." Which was the precise thought that had been running my mind. Why were we even thinking of such? Because both Mark Peterson and Tony Leukering had suggested that BB Wood was a possibility in N Colorado, especially at Black Mountain (and some other nearby areas)... so we'd listened to recordings of drummings of BB Wood, TT Wood, Hairy Wood, and flicker several times over. The drum of the BB Wood does not accelerate like that of a TT Wood and is slower than either flicker or Hairy. 

In any case, the woodpecker drummed several times more and stopped. Alec had moved down the road towards the bird by that time as I tried to lure the bird in by playing the drum on my phone. Alec leapt up the hillside and I walked down the road and heard that "chack" note of the BB Wood 3 times or so. Alec also heard it and pursued the bird further. A few minutes went by. I continued to whistle like a N Pyg Owl and Boreal Owl, but no luck. Then the bird gave its distinctive harsh rattle twice. I thought Alec must be playing a recording. He thought the same of me. When I got back to the car, I was startled to see Alec's phone sitting on the seat (hence Alec, who was much closer to the bird) not recording it. Plus, it called/drummed infrequently enough that we'd have had to leave phones sitting on the road for 10 minutes to catch said noises. 

So, the drum and calls were just as I'd remembered and matched recordings quite nicely to my mind, and Alec's. No one is more sorry than we that no visual connection, photo, or audio recording were made. We fully understand that this makes our report unacceptable to some, which is as it is. We are, however, quite certain that we encountered a Black-backed Woodpecker on Black Mountain on the morning of 16 June (at about 7:30 am)

From the CFO Birding Website:

Black Mountain is reached by traveling about 11 miles north of Craig on Highway 13 and then turning right onto CR 27. CR 27 travels through ranch land and then begins gaining elevation through mountain brush habitat and then gets into aspen habitat shortly before reaching the Routt National Forest boundary. The road changes to FR 110 at the forest boundary. Follow FR 110 to a point where it turns L and a F1103B goes R. Also at this juncture, there is a sign: Drainage Divide: Yampa River - Little Snake River. Veer left here, following FR 110. The bird was 0.2 to 0.4 miles from that intersection on FR 110. If you follow FR 110 to a point where it makes a hairpin turn back to the L (about 0.6 or so miles from intersection), you've gone to far. 

Good Luckb and Good Birding

Steven Mlodinow

Longmont, CO

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