Sapsuckers today: total of 19 in Canon City, CO Area

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I started off to just do a count of the female Williamson's Sapsuckers today as there are so many birds it seemed like it would be easier to just count the males and females on different days, but shifts in sapsucker locations changed my plan. The first sapsucker I spotted this morning at Centennial Park was a male, the first time I have seen a male at this location this year. Then I realized there were two sapsuckers in that same pine tree, one a male and the other a female. Sapsuckers do not like to share. The male proceeded to behave aggressively towards the female-he raised his crest and moved towards her, and get this--he gave a churr call then what sounded like he hissed at her. I was only 20-25 feet away so I could hear the interaction fairly well and it sounded like a hiss. (Of course, I can't find anything in the literature about such a sound by this species though I did find that young Red-headed Woodpecker nestlings do hiss.) Anyway, this caused the female to retreat to a another pine tree about 80 feet away. Though I saw 3 female (but no male) Williamson's in Centennial Park just about a week ago, all I could find today were these two.
In addition to this location shift, I could only locate one male Williamson's at Rouse Park and in the location where a second male has been for weeks was a female Williamson's. I also found a second female in the pines on the other side of Rouse Park a location where I had not previously seen female Williamson's this year.

I also located a male Williamson's in some pines in a private yard, a new location, I have checked this week as it looked like a good spot for this species. This supports my belief that there are likely more sapsuckers located on private property where I not able to find them.

In total I saw 10 males again today, though I missed a few I saw yesterday while finding males in new locations today. I saw a total of 7 female Williamson's and have added the female I have watched just outside of Canon City for two consecutive days to the totals. And I saw the male Red-naped Sapsucker today too for a total of 19 sapsuckers.
SeEtta

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