It is no
wonder that one can easily spot birds and their nests at the Orcas Island. With
an area of 57 square miles, it has only 4894 residents staying on it. Which
means minimum disturbance from the human species.
I was
walking down the path from Cherry Hill along the bay when I saw this tree with
a black patch on it.
Initially I thought it was a black patch, but was
wondering how it could be a perfect round.
I stopped
and was intently gazing upon it when out popped a head of a young one.
And
therein started my saga with the young ones and their mother.
Daily morning I
used to be there with my camera to get some good shots/videos of the young one.
Within the next four days I realised that there were three of them in
that cavity though I could not get all three in a shot (managed to get them in
the video)
(I don’t know if
there were more than three) At times they would lean out a lot waiting for their
mother
While
scanning higher up on the same tree, I found another hole, probably occupied by
another clutch from the earlier mating season. It is interesting to see the
different marks and patterns on the bark.
On the first
day I did not see the mother. I could spend only about an hour daily as there
were other places to be explored on the island, including whale watching (will
write about that later)
On the
second day I did spot the mother and captured (on video) how she signaled to
the young ones to keep quiet, so as not to give away their hiding place.
After seeing
the mother I realised that it’s a Northern Flicker Woodpecker, found mostly in
the northern parts of America. They have got barred upper parts and spotted
underparts. The “Black Bib” on the upper chest is very prominent with a red malar
(moustache)
The little
guy sort of got used to me hanging around and did not mind
All
pictures and videos were captured from a distance (about 20 meters) Have
put together all the interesting parts of the mother and the chicks to make a
short video on it.
I have kept
the ambient sound as it is, so you will mostly hear the blue north western Pacific waters lapping away at
the bay.
