Wisconsin Ornithology: Red Headed Woodpecker Traditional Cache

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Woodlandnomad: Forest management meets geocaching--forest management won. Thanks to everyone who visited.

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Hidden : 6/1/2012
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:


Wisconsin Ornithology

This series highlights several of my favorite birds, all of which can be found in Wisconsin. I have found all of the birds included in the series (with one exception). Each cache is somehow related to the highlighted bird. In many cases you will find hints to finding the cache in the information provided about each bird. Each cache is hidden in roughly the environment the bird can be found. None of the caches are hidden in a nesting box or a fake nest (with one exception of a very non-standard nest), so if you find a nest or nesting box—please leave it alone it has nothing to do with the cache.



Red-headed Woodpecker(Melanerpes erythrocephalus)

The Red Headed Woodpecker was one the first birds I learned to identify as a small child of five or so. The picture of this bird in my children’s birdbook--with its’ prominent red head and black and white body--easily caught my attention. It also helped that I would occasionally see this striking bird around my house in Michigan. By the time I turned six we had moved and, in the many years since that move, I can count the number of times I have seen this woodpecker on my fingers. Beginning in the mid-sixties, the number of Red Headed Woodpeckers began a steep decline. Once fairly common, the Red Headed Woodpecker is facing a serious challenge to its’ survival. Already over wide sections of its’ former territory, the population of Red Headed Woodpeckers has dropped below sustainable levels. Ornithologists have identified two major factors leading the Red Headed Woodpecker’s decline. First, the massive increase in the population of the European Starling is creating overwhelming competition for the Red Headed Woodpecker’s traditional nesting locations: natural or hollowed out cavities in trees. Second, there seems to be less tolerance for leaving dead trees standing on one’s property. These standing dead trees are the bird’s prime nesting spots.

The Red Headed Woodpecker’s decline is ironic in a number of ways. First, the Red Headed Woodpecker is one of the most aggressive of all species of woodpeckers. Thus it is surprising that the bird is losing out to the Starling in the competition for nesting locations. Second, the omnivorous Red Headed Woodpecker has the broadest diet of all woodpeckers. The bird will eat insects, berries, fruit, nuts, seeds, and occasionally the eggs of other birds. It is also the only woodpecker to cache a supply of food for winter covering the cache with bark or wood chips.

While many woodpeckers have patches of red on their heads, the Red Headed Woodpecker is the only North American woodpecker with a solid red head.

This cache is located in Scheidegger County Forest. Permit for placement has been approved by the Dane County Parks Department. A copy of the permit maybe obtained by emailing me at the above link.
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Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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