MUSKEGON, Mich. — For avid birder Beth Miller, a trip to the golf course with her husband turned into what just might be a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
On Friday night, Miller was at Oakridge Golf Club. While her husband was working on his golf game, Miller happened to spy a woodpecker that she had never seen before. A member of the Muskegon County Nature Club, Miller knows her stuff when it comes to the local woodpeckers and birds, but she said this one was clearly different.
Miller said she quickly uploaded pictures she had taken on her phone and a recording of the sounds the woodpecker was making to a Discord channel for Michigan birders. A fellow birder almost immediately identified the bird as a possible sighting of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.
“It’s exciting because I believe this the first time its ever been seen in the state of Michigan. It is a bird native to the southeast longleaf pine forests- the Carolinas, the South. We had some folks from the South who are also on the Michigan Discord channel right away say yes," said Miller.
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is described as having noticeable black-and-white bars across the back, with the male showing off a distinctive "cockade," a red stripe on the upper cheek.
According to The Cornell Lab, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker has been endangered since 1970 because of a increasing loss of habitat. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker dwells in pine forests, especially the longleaf pine forests that used to be common in Southeast America, and with the shrinking of pine forests due to clearcutting, among other factors, the woodpecker has disappeared entirely from several states.
“What is that woodpecker doing in Michigan? So there are some theories, but in the end no one knows and we’re just riding the wave of excitement as birders," said Miller, who also said that she has been back to Oakridge Golf Course in hopes of a second sighting, without luck.
She's not the only one looking. Carla Grossnickel, owner of the Oakridge Golf Club, said that she's noticed an influx of birders visiting the golf course.
“I was surprised by how fast the news got out and how fast people got out to look for this bird," said Grossnickel, adding that she was an avid birder herself and was excited to see how serious other people were about the sighting.
The rare bird has yet to be found, though Miller explained that the Red-cockaded may have escaped into PJ Hoffmaster State Park, which is very close to Oakridge Golf Club.
“We’re going to keep looking," she said.
