Kudos to Casey for this informed observation. It seems likely that some
northern nesters will continue abandoning southern spots for this and
similar climate-influenced reasons. Several decades ago, black-capped
chickadees would be in my yard, not Carolinas. The gray jay example is a
good example: there is an old and unsatisfactory report of a this
species in Ohio...I believe it was in American Birds decades ago.
        Awareness of such things is something the average lister often lacks;
maybe when red-cockaded woodpeckers start showing up in southern Ohio
they can just be ticked off instead. We would be better birders if we
understood why.
Bill Whan
Columbus

On 3/23/2016 9:05 PM, Casey Tucker wrote:
> Hi All, One of the things to consider is that Red-headed Woodpeckers,
> unlike most other woodpecker species, will cache food to help get
> them through winter months.  Some of the items they like to cache
> include acorns, beech nuts, various other seeds, and live insects,
> especially grasshoppers. During the months of winter the cold
> temperatures act like a refrigerator or cold storage for these cached
> items,preventing them from growing mold, fungus and other degrading
> bacteria.  During warmer winters these cached items don't necessarily
> last, especially in the more southern portions of the species'
> distribution.  As a result the birds may have to go in search of new
> locations to find food, especially, as Kathi pointed out, during
> times of low mast production. Gray Jays experience a similar problem
> with cached prey items in the southern part of that species' range.
> It's especially detrimental to Gray Jays because they rely on the
> cached food items to allow them to breed early, while snow is still
> on the ground.  However if warmer winter temperatures cause their
> caches to rot prematurely they have to abandon their nests to go in
> search of food. This is just one possible explanation for the absence
> of Red-headed Woodpeckers from the more southwestern part of the
> state and their presence/persistence a bit further north. Just
> something to consider. Casey TuckerAdjunct InstructorBiology/Natural
> SciencesCentral Ohio Technical College Join us for the Ohio Avian
> Research ConferenceOct. 22nd at Denison University, Granville,
> OHhttp://tuckercasey.wix.com/aacri-birds#!oarc2016/djj57
>
> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 20:11:31 -0400> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Red-headed Woodpeckers To:
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> There are Red-headed Woodpeckers in Trumbull Co. (NE Ohio0. Years
>> ago they were "established"  in a spot with large white oak trees.
>> They were there for years.  Then suddenly gone.   The trees.
>> "habitat"  are still there but no Red-heads.      We've wondered
>> about their disappearance?   And that question has not been
>> answered.     You have experienced what we experienced.   ???
>> Carole Babyak, Howland Twp.
>>

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