Thank You Mr. Lewis

I didn't take this. One of the guys in my Beginning Birder II class took it with his SLR yesterday afternoon. This is a Lewis's Woodpecker. A very auspicious bird to see in Western Oregon. This guy was in a gnarly old oak down just outside the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge near Salem.

I am sure the bird has a native name too.

It took 12 of us about 12 minutes of very concentrated peering to find him but once we did it was very exciting. I had seen one a few years ago at Powell Butte with Kes but still this one was a joy to watch.

My link today is for this cool new program for learning to identify birds by their songs called Lark Wire. I am so going to try this out when I find anything that vaguely resembles spare time. :)