Texas Trip Day Eight

I bet you are wondering when I will be finished with this trip. Well, we are on our way home in the journal now. We stopped at a Indian Creek Rec Area in Lousiana for a rest. We were lucky to find that they are encouraging/ studying Red-cockaded Woodpeckers here. It made it easy for us to see one. These little woodpeckers are having a rough time surviving. There are just a few populations in a few states and Lousiana is one of those lucky states. Their prefered habitat is mature pine or pine- oak woodlands. They bore their nest holes only in large living pine that have heart wood disease. Then they drill small holes around the nest opening and the sap oozes out of the holes down the tree under the opening. They think this might repel predators. It also makes it easy for humans to find the nest holes. The researchers then paint a wide white stripe on treees that have occupied nest holes. This makes it easy for birdwatchers like us to find the nests too. We have learned that if you wait at the near the nest holes right before they come in to roost for the night you can see these illusive little woodpeckers. We learned this the only other time that we saw one when a person studying these birds in KY told us that we could wait near some nest holes and told us to be still and keep our eyes open for them coming in. This bird announced his displeasure to us as he came in to roost that evening. It called and poundedon one of the trees near its nest. A fun respite for road weary travelers. We also had Brown-headed Nuthatches here. This is another bird we don't get to see often.

I hope you all have a nice weekend planned.