Epic USA Day 8

Took the bold decision to go to Kootenai State Forest today as there had been a report of a nesting pair of American Three-toed Woodpeckers within the last few days. The drive to the great named town of Eureka only took 45 minutes but once in the forest the winding dirt forest roads the going was slow but eventually we reached the site high up in the hills. The habitat was perfect and was an open patch of forest with plenty of obvious woodpecker activity but after chasing these reported birds recently my hopes weren’t that high. Unbelievably we found a freshly excavated woodpecker hole right beside the forest road and after a few minutes Jo heard tapping coming from inside the hole. And yes, suddenly a male American Three-toed Woodpecker poked his head out of the hole briefly before dropping back inside. 

American Three-toed Woodpecker

He poked his head out several more times when all of a sudden the female appeared and took over excavating duties and the male flew off. Wow! We watched the female for several more minutes before leaving her in peace and driving further into the hills. We found a few White-winged Crossbills, Neil saw a Clark’s Nutcracker and there were also plenty of other common species. After a few hours we returned to Eureka for a big lunch before heading to a lake where some Hooded Mergansers had been seen a few days ago. Google Maps didn’t want to take us the 4.5 miles and it took over an hour before we found the lake, but alas no mergs. There were 21 Ring-necked Ducks, a pair of Lesser Scaups and 4 Buffleheads here, so we walked back to the car through the forest and bumped into a Ruffed Grouse walking along the track before heading up the slope where we followed it and had great views. 

Ruffed Grouse

Elated with this we decided to push our luck and go to an area that a Dusky Grouse had been seen several weeks ago. Well, you know your luck is in when the grouse was found displaying and pretty oblivious to our presence. What a day! 

Dusky Grouse

And it wasn’t over yet as we saw a Vaux’s Swift and our first Townsend’s Solitaire singing away from the top of a conifer right next to the road! Not too shabby!