[mou] **BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER, Dakota County

[drewbec at aol.com]

I was in St. Paul this morning and decided to stop at Acacia Park Cemetary in Mendota Heights on my way back home. I was on the road along the southern edge of the cemetary, and stopped by the old metal electrical tower, and started pishing loudly to see if any sparrows would come out of the weeds there. I turned to look west along the road at a couple chickadees, and noticed a fairly good sized woodpecker flying towards me, approximately Hairy Woodpecker size. It was silent as it went by and flew up into a walnut tree that had lost nearly all of its leaves, about 100 feet away. Deciding to have a look at it, I got it in my binoculars and was looking at a back view of the bird. I was surprised to see there was no white on the back anywhere! It appeared solid black. Holy s--t!!! (The reality sunk in very quickly!) The bird turned to the left and gave me a profile view of its right side, and I saw its barred flanks, all black head, white moustache stripe, black malar stripe and white throat. It continued to work its way up the limb, and then flew off to the east southeast towards Pilot Knob Road and the couple houses there. I got in my car and drove back in that direction, and searched that corner of the cemetary for another 5-10 minutes without locating it again. I decided I needed to get home and get the word out on the net.



As I didn't see any indication of color on the forehead, I"m going to say I believe the bird is a female. As my observation was very short, I might be wrong.




There is only one previous record of this species for Dakota County, from January 1930.




Drew Smith

Eagan, Dakota County
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