Page 67 - 2018 NOV/DEC Outdoor Oklahoma

For Clay Barnes and Jordan Shope, a wildlife biolo-
gist and a technician for the Oklahoma Department of
Wildlife Conservation, going to the office means driv- WILDLIFEDEPARTMENT.COM
ing an ATV packed with climbing gear and a telescopic
camera onto a small pontoon boat, crossing Broken Bow
Lake, then navigating the twisting trails within McCurtain
County Wilderness Area’s 14,000-plus acres.
Together, they manage the Wildlife Department’s origi-
nal conservation area and a small population of red-cock-
aded woodpeckers found there.
Barnes and Shope are tasked with monitoring the rare
birds, especially during their vulnerable nesting season,
and maintaining the area’s habitat throughout the year
so the birds can persist in Oklahoma.
“Wildlife and habitat go hand-in-hand,” Barnes said.
“And for Oklahoma’s red-cockaded woodpeckers, habitat
means shortleaf pines with cavities serving as roost and
nest trees, and an open understory for foraging.”
Like other woodpeckers, red-cockaded woodpeckers
live and raise their young in holes they’ve created in trees.
But this particular species only builds cavities in living
pines infected with the naturally occurring red heart fun-
gus. The fungus softens the wood, making it easier for the
woodpeckers to hollow out a small cavity. Even with the
softened wood, construction may take two years.
“Red-cockaded woodpeckers are social and live in
small family units in a group or cluster of trees. After a
roost cavity is drilled, the birds chip bark away from the
entrance hole. This lets the sticky pine resin found under-
neath the bark coat each bird’s tree and offers some pro-
tection from potential predators like snakes.”
The birds maintain resin flows year-round, which stains
active woodpecker trees a dull gray.
Barnes and Shope take note of which trees the woodpeck-
ers appear to be using as they monitor the birds throughout
the year. But the significance of gray, or active, trees increas-
es substantially during the spring nesting season.

COURTESY JIM JOHNSTON

Wildlife biologist Clay Barnes scales
a tree to install a tree cavity insert
to encourage nesting by the federally
endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
Wildlife biologist Clay Barnes performs tree cavity maintenance.

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