Photos by Kim and Cindy Risen / www.naturescapenews.com
Searching for beetle juice: Taking time from a meal of larch beetle larvae to pose cooperatively, this Black-backed Woodpecker is part of a substantial irruption across the upper Midwest this winter.

By Kim Risen
Have you heard the news about that rare woodpecker? No, not the one in Arkansas, the one up in Michigan. Or Wisconsin. Or Minnesota. Ivory-billed Woodpeckers aren’t the only woodpeckers making headlines anymore! An irruption of Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers into the Midwest has given birders searching for woodpeckers quarry that has proven to be not nearly so mythical as their southern relative.

Catch the rest of the story in the February Issue of NatureScape News!        Next Highlight