Two Nests?
I visited the site today to see if I could see him and maybe get a better picture. I saw a women coming from the trail as I was heading in. She mentioned there were a lot of red-headed woodpeckers. She didn’t say how many, but since I knew of four (two parents, the fledgling and the other adult) I figured that would be considered by most as “a lot”.
I arrived at the same area I was the day before. I ran into another photographer/birder who was there for the same reason - to see the red-heads. Within a couple of minutes we heard him and I was able to get this picture.
ID - 08-30-21
Later we met up again and she showed me a great picture she got of a parent feeding a fledgling. It did not appear to have any red on his head. She said it seemed there was more than one fledgling. At that moment a fledgling and parent landed close by. I got the pictures below:
-more about these fledglings at the bottom of the page-
As you can see there is no sign of red on the head yet. This is the fledgling from the nest I’ve been watching, the other fledgling is from a different nest. That would also explain why I have seen an additional adult. The other parent must be nearby as well. This would equal at least six red-heads - yes, that is a lot for the area.
This is very good news. At this point we don’t know how many fledglings are from the other nest nor where the nest was. They appear to be about 5 days older. So not only was it unusual to have a clutch this late in the season, but it appears we have TWO clutches this late.
