Subject: Red Headed Woodpecker Date: Thu Jun 16 2016 16:45 pm From: paulgraham AT wowway.com I think it's important to report anytime one of these is observed (and I see them so infrequently): Anyway I saw one today along Middleboro Road, in Warren County, just east/northeast of Fort Ancient State Memorial. This location was probably around 3 miles north of the SR 350 and Middleboro Road intersection. I was able to pull off the road and watch it working in 3 trees. Always a thrill to see a RHWP! Paul Graham Paul's right. This beauty has become a tough bird to find, though it was once called "the most abundant and best known of all our woodpeckers" in Wheaton's Birds of Ohio (1882). Trautman counted as many as 40 a day found as traffic roadkills during Ohio surveys during the 1920s and ‘30s. Farmers regarded them as an agricultural pest and shot them. Their nest sites in dead trees and poles are far more often quickly removed. Cutting rural tree stands, especially the beech trees on which they fed in winter, have taken a toll. See 'em while you can. Bill Whan ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]