Okay, I know this may look like one of those Sasquatch photos but it is in reality a very poor picture of the Red-breasted Sapsucker seen at Fish Park. I have a new camera and am having trouble getting it to work with my digiscoping adapter.
The morning was cold and sunny. My hope was that the birds would get real active as soon as the sun hit the park. I had thought about leaving the spotting scope in the truck but decided to bring it along in case I got another look at what I thought was a Sapsucker. I entered the park and walked to the back corner as I often do. Along the way I flushed a Killdeer who made a noisy departure.
As soon as I got to the tree line I saw a sparrow sitting out on a bush singing. I took a look with my binoculars and at first could only see it's tail and back. I made a low noise and the bird changed branches and ended up facing me. I was happy to note that it was very dark and did not have the obvious eyebrow of a Song Sparrow. I then looked to see if I could spot chevrons on its chest and I could. I often think I see Fox Sparrows in this spot and this time I could definitely make the identification.
While I was looking around and noting all the usual suspects I heard a woodpecker drumming. It sounded like it was in the same area as where I thought I saw the sapsucker a couple days before. I picked up my scope and walked a little way up the trail. I tried several different vantage points but could not get a good view of the tree I wanted to see. I ended up standing in the exact same spot as two days earlier and pulled my binoculars to my eyes. I pulled the view into ficus and was quite surprised to see the same bird in the exact same spot as he was the first time I saw him. I watched for a short while and then pulled the scope over. I use a Vortex Skyline 20-60x-80 and was able to find the bird quickly at 20x and then dialed in a closer view at 60x. The light wasn't great but the larger 80mm objective lens helps to give a brighter image. I had a good long look and, after a quickly referencing my Peterson's field guide, am pretty confident in my identification of this bird as a Red-breasted Sapsucker. The funny thing was that I realized after a couple minutes that I was still hearing drumming but it wasn't coming from this bird. It sounded like it was coming from the same tree but I could never spot the second bird. Either way, it was good to come back and be able to positively ID the bird we had seen earlier in the week.
Here is my list from this morning... Mallard duck sp. Great Blue Heron Killdeer gull sp. Red-breasted Sapsucker American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Spotted Towhee Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Pine Siskin
