Date: 4/22/26 10:08 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] follow up on Red-headed Woodpecker migration mystery
Hello All:
I am very intrigued by this RHWO situation, because over in New Orleans one of our odd discoveries in the last 5 or so years is that RHWO occur with some regularity in active migration at South Point on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain during spring migration, despite having previously been thought to be basically absent from New Orleans year round (despite nesting commonly just north across Lake P).
Skywatching at South Pt often turns up multiples per day, flying up the lakefront and crossing the 5-mile water gap to Slidell northbound.
We had puzzled over where these birds could possibly be coming from, since there were no wintering populations to our south.
I wonder if they also could be coming northwest from peninsular Florida???
Peter Yaukey
Peter H. Yaukey, Ph.D.
Departmental Chair and Professor of Biology
Department of Biological and Physical Sciences
University of Holy Cross
4123 Woodland Drive
New Orleans, LA 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
[cid:91D4B89B-2D58-4695-9437-0B7014880A72]
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2026 9:34 PM
To: Nflbirds <nflbirds...>; Albirds <albirds...>
Subject: [ALbirds] follow up on Red-headed Woodpecker migration mystery
Not such a mystery after all!
Notice the Cornell BirdCast map for tonight. It shows that birds are leaving south Florida (where many, many RHWOs winter) and flying northwestward cutting across the eastern Gulf. Live Maps – BirdCast<https://birdcast.org/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/>
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