We heard this week from Ellis Myers, who does the newsletter for the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society, and were pleased to hear that the local chapter is continuing to put heat on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for its handling of the Rossmoor Acorn Woodpecker situation. You might recall that the last time we looked into this issue, the Service had authorized the USDA to come in and trap 20 birds for research purposes. Given that all 20 birds would be euthanized, this achieved essentially the same result as the depredation permit that Audubon California and others strongly criticized.

We’ve also learned through Dr. Eric Walters, an Acorn Woodpecker specialist at UC Berkeley, that at least five woodpeckers died before they could reach the USDA’s research facility in Fort Collins. Moreover, Walters has been investigating the timing of the trapping, insisting that it was particularly egregious to do the trapping in late May, when the birds were nesting. That said, Walters has learned that the trapping itself was conducted in a manner that sought to avoid trapping parenting females. Nonetheless, he holds California Fish & Game and U.S. Fish & Wildlife responsible for authorizing the take at exactly the wrong time.