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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
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| Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 15, 2016 |
After getting out of work this morning I didn't have much energy to go birding so I headed straight for home with a very brief at Winsor Dam (which was very quiet). After doing some stuff around the house while waiting for it to warm up a bit, Wilson and I finally headed out for a walk. Although I was going to head elsewhere, at the last minute I decided to head to Lake Wallace. We arrived there and started walking around the fields and checking out the marsh. Just a few ducks around but with hunting season ongoing it was not too surprising to find very few of them. Yellow rumped Warblers were present in large numbers working their way along the tree line and through the marsh. After some distant gunshots we almost left but decided to stay a bit longer and take a walk through some of the woods there. We ran across a women taking some photos of the marsh and I asked her if she had seen anything interesting and she responded 'I have been taking photos of a Red headed Woodpecker'. Almost every time someone has mentioned seeing this species in the past around here it ends up being something else. She then mentioned it was chasing Pileated Woodpeckers and kept collecting acorns and stashing them in some dead trees. I was immediately intrigued as this is behavior one would expect from a Red headed Woodpecker. She then showed me a photo from her camera and she had indeed been taking photos of an adult Red headed Woodpecker! The bird then flew in and continued to stash acorns. I watched it for quite awhile before walking back to get the spotting scope to getting better looks (and better photos). It remained active the entire time I was there and would occasionally call. Only my second Red headed Woodpecker I have seen in the county (the other was a very brief look earlier this year of another adult in Amherst that didn't stick around too long). The bird this morning showed very well and appears to be settling into the area. I managed to contact a few other people who also got to see the bird. Glad I decided to head over to Lake Wallace!
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