[Birdtalk] "New" Lewis's Woodpeckers in Ogden Valley

[Kristin Purdy]

I ran across three LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS in Ogden Valley, Weber County, this 
morning in a location where I've never seen them before--west of Pineview 
Reservior along SR-158 just southwest of mile marker 3. This spot is above 
The North Arm Natural Area and about on an even latitude with the current 
water level. The first bird swooped over my car as I was headed north 
driving highway speed; thank goodness for ABS brakes and nobody in my rear 
view mirror. There's a small pullout and an angler's access at mile marker 3 
along the east side of the road. I stopped there and re-found the bird atop 
a power pole on the west side of the road. Later, two woodpeckers were on 
successive power poles and one was foraging in a small grove of oak on the 
east side of the road just south of mm 3. The bird I studied the most was an 
apparent juvenile with poorly developed red on the face even in bright light 
and a dusky vest over the pink breast and belly.

Both of the power pole birds swooped to the oak grove on the east side of 
the road, harvested acorns, flew back to the poles, shelled the acorns and 
cached them in the tops of the poles. I hope that means the woodpeckers are 
going to stick around as they build their stores of mast for the winter. I 
do worry about these birds swooping and gliding across the road between 
foraging and caching areas and hope they fly higher than the traffic.

I also saw what might be another measure of a significant downslope movement 
of mountain birds--three or four Steller's Jay's harvesting acorns at the 
mouth of Powder Mountain Canyon, also along SR-158 just north of mile marker 
7. This location is at an elevation of only 5425 feet, low for a group of 
Steller's Jays to be harvesting and perhaps caching acorns. All of the birds 
flew toward the mouth of the canyon with their acorns and I saw them do this 
multiple times. They were quite active with their back-and-forth flights. I 
haven't seen Steller's Jays in lower elevations in the winter since 
2001-2002, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll continue moving 
downhill and will find my peanut feeder.

SR-158 begins at the head of Ogden Canyon at Pineview Dam, which is 
approximately 10 miles east of I-15 at exit 344.

Kris