Tehachapi News

Woodpecker Castle: 50 years of sheltering Acorn Woodpeckers

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On the north side of Water Canyon Road, just before you enter Tehachapi Mountain Park, there is wooden castle that has provided safe haven for a colony of acorn woodpeckers for at least 50 years.

The castle is actually a snag — an enormous dead valley oak. The term snag refers to a dead tree that is still standing.

In the case of oaks, they can last upright a long time after they lose their final leaf.

With deep strong roots and hard wood, oaks in California are estimated to stand for an average of 50 years after they die. Some remain upright much longer than that, slowly weathering away and being sculpted into statuary by wind and ice and even fire.

The fact that oaks can stand for so long after they die and provide shelter and habitat for many creatures for as long as a century or more is a powerful argument against cutting down any dead oak that is still upright.

The Woodpecker Castle has been home to a colony of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) for longer than I have been alive. I have noticed and observed this tree and its resident woodpeckers for nearly 40 years, and it can be found in my earliest memories of trips to Tehachapi Mountain Park.

Acorn Woodpeckers are one of the few cooperative nesting birds in the Tehachapi area. These vocal year-round residents are very common in our oak woodlands, and if you live among or hike in oaks you will usually hear the raucous “Aaka-aaka-aaka” calls of these ubiquitous birds.

Acorn woodpeckers are slightly smaller than a robin, with white chests, a black face with white markings, a black back and black wings with prominent white bars that are visible when they fly. They also have cream-colored eyes and a red cap, giving them a colorful clown-like appearance.

Cooperative nesting birds like acorn woodpeckers are those in which other members of a flock or colony will help raise the young, not just the single male and female parents. Acorn woodpecker colonies tend to number about 6-16 individual birds and consist of siblings, cousins and their parents. Often 1 or more males will mate with

1-2 females and all the eggs will be laid in one nest and tended together.

After the chicks hatch, they are cared for by different members of the colony, not just the parents. Like a wolf pack, just the alpha males and females breed and produce the young but other members of the pack assist in raising the offspring.

A vital part of any acorn woodpecker colony is their granary tree, where the birds carefully store acorns. The birds first use their powerful reinforced beaks to hammer out circular holes in dead wood or bark, then they pound in collected acorns.

Wedged tightly in the holes, the acorns are difficult for squirrels and other birds to steal. Acorn woodpeckers will defend their granaries from non-member woodpeckers, jays and other would-be thieves.

Biologists have counted as many as 50,000 acorns in a single large snag. The Woodpecker Castle certainly has thousands of acorns stored at any given time and the tree is riddled with thousands of holes.

In winter and spring when the resident woodpeckers feed upon acorns stored the previous autumn, they often get the added treat of an insect that is feeding on the cached acorn. This is no meal-spoiler for the woodpecker, an insectivore that probably prefers the taste of the insect over that of the acorn.

In addition to the many thousands of acorn holes drilled into the Woodpecker Castle, the old snag also features at least 20 different entrance holes leading to multiple cavities where the birds have both nested and roosted for many decades. I’ve seen different woodpeckers peering out of as many as four different cavity holes at the same time while watching activity at the tree.

Acorn woodpeckers are noisy, gregarious and comical birds and I enjoy watching them. My favorite place to see them, and one of their favorite places to be, is the big snag on Water Canyon Road known as Woodpecker Castle. I hope it stands for many more years.

Have a good week.

Honoring Our Elders: History in the First Person

I will be interviewing Bob and Betty Freeman at Mama Hillybeans Coffeehouse on Tehachapi Boulevard on Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m. as part of our ongoing series featuring conversations with interesting Tehachapi oldtimers.

Bob is 90 years old and his family are Tehachapi pioneers. The Freemans are one of the oldest families to live in Tehachapi continuously, in portions of three different centuries now — in the 1800s, 1900s, and now 2000s.

Join us for a fascinating look back at Tehachapi’s early days from people who were actually there. Admission is free and newcomers and oldtimers alike are encouraged to attend. You’ll laugh and learn and become more knowledgeable about Tehachapi — don’t miss it!