Woodpecker WESTERN BIRDS 



over these holes and the poles were treated with creosote 

 in hope of driving the birds away. But it was of no avail. 

 They persistently returned and dug other holes above, 

 or below, the closed one and because human life seemed 

 more important than that of the birds, reluctantly the 

 order went forth that the birds must be killed. 



The nesting habits of the California Woodpeckers are 

 most interesting. For two seasons the same hole in a 

 telephone pole that is daily passed by hundreds of street 

 cars and automobiles, has been the home of a pair of 

 these birds. There are plenty of oak and other trees 

 nearby, but the birds seem to have a fondness for this 

 pole which is near a group of them on a busy corner. 

 The hole is about thirty feet from the ground and is 

 badly worn and split down. From a small round opening 

 it has become an almost square one nearly twice as large 

 as needed. 



While these birds do not ordinarily nest later than 

 July this pair had squealing young in the nest when I 

 discovered them on September 11. It was after six 

 o'clock when I first saw the old birds flying through the 

 air after insects and stopped to watch them. Sometimes 

 they flew out in big circles, returning, flycatcher fashion, 

 to the place from which they started; sometimes they 

 flew straight up into the air and tumbled back, often- 

 times catching themselves suddenly in their downward 

 flight, and darting forward. I thought, as I watched 

 them, how remarkably graceful they were for Wood- 

 peckers and how much they foraged like the true Fly- 

 catchers. As I watched I was surprised to see them go 

 to the pole and feed something within. 



Surely September was a queer time for these birds to 

 be nesting. The next day I visited the nest-pole and for 

 one hour, from three o'clock until four, watched the 

 birds. I noticed that a Woodpecker was resting on the 

 wire above the nest, and that two others were busy 



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