Society hosts woodpecker weekend

If the dates of June 24-26 are open on your calendar, quickly grab up a pen and mark them "Woodpecker Weekend." Those are the days you will have the opportunity to head out into the forests all around Central Oregon with a guide from East Cascades Audubon Society (ECAS) and observe woodpeckers. Not just "observe," but see them - up close and personal - and put them on your "life list."

For those who don't have a life list of birds, this will be the time to start one. After all, Sisters is one of the very few places in all of North America where you can find the rare white-headed woodpecker, Picoides albolarvatus, in your backyard. Birders from all over the world come to Sisters to see this beautiful woodpecker.

The more elusive black-backed woodpecker, pictured above, can be seen in the Deschutes National Forest, but you have to search a little harder for them than for the white-headed. This almost-all-black member of the woodpecker family moves into newly burned areas to take advantage of the wood-boring beetles that are also moving into a forest after a fire.

John and Anne Gerke, long-time birders of Sisters, have put this Woodpecker Weekend together and are welcoming birders of every level, especially those who want to get into birding.

Currently, ECAS guides are planning four full-day trips in the Sisters Ranger District: Friday, all-day at the Summer Lake Wildlife Management Area; one to the Ochoco Mountains and one to the Cascade Lakes Highway on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday and Sunday trips begin at 5 a.m.

Guides will also lead a two-hour tour of Sisters' Calliope Crossing, and a two-hour trip to Black Butte Swamp. Transportation will be limited to 14 per trip and car-pooled in private vehicles.

The Woodpecker Weekend will end on Sunday afternoon with a pizza picnic at Village Green Park that will provide everyone the opportunity to share the excitement of their sightings.

The cost for this event is $20 per person. For more information and to register visit http://www.ecbcbirds.org and follow the links to Woodpecker Weekend.