LEWIS LOLLAPALOOZA

Each winter we get some Lewis’s Woodpeckers here in Jackson County. Some years more than others. This has started off as a big year for Lewis’s in our open oak woodlands. They don’t breed in the county apparently, but there is a colony just fifteen miles south along the Klamath River north of Yreka. Nobody here knows where these birds are coming from apparently.
This is a great species to watch on any day. This morning after a rain squall and then some break-up of clouds it was windless and partially sunny along Hwy 66, at about 2600′ elevation. In the oaks there was a group of Lewis’s. Like their Acorn cousins, this species is often seen fly-catching. They do the phoebe bit–sit upright, spot prey, fly out and grab, then fly back to the same perch. Today they were in Purple Martin mode. Something I’d never witnessed before. Up to eight were circling in the air at one time, some 200 yards or more above the earth. Circling, swooping, diving in shallow stoops. Not as fast nor elegant as swallows, unable to kite or hover like a Kestrel, the Lewis’s were still airborne for several minutes at a time. Many small insects including pale aphids were in the air and must have been their prey.

It’s fascinating to see the stiff and pointed plumes at the end of the tail feathers, useful for propping against a tree trunk when hammering

This location is at Milepost 10 on Hwy 66 southeast of Ashland in the Cascades. Two other good locations hereabouts for wintering Lewis’s are Sam’s Valley north of the Rogue River and Agate’s Lake northeast of Medford and south of Hwy 140.