Woodpeckers love to hammer away in central Oregon's Metolius Basin

A distant drumming deep in the forest is the first sign.

A woodpecker is at work.

Big fires that raged in recent years near Santiam Pass led to standing snags loaded with beetles -- and that, along with diverse habitat, make the basin the hot spot it is for woodpeckers, especially in the April-June nesting season.

Woodpeckers tend to be raucous and easy to find, especially when bringing home food to the little ones on the nest in spring.

North America has 22 species of woodpeckers and their cousins, sapsuckers and flickers (23 if you count the possibly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker), with 15 seen in Oregon. The Camp Sherman area in the Metolius Basin, a three-hour drive southeast of Portland, has 11 breeding species.

As the group draws near the drumming, the next sign is tree bark flying everywhere. Can there be any doubt that woodpeckers are among the hardest workers in the bird kingdom?

Then we spot it: a black-backed woodpecker, going about its business of dismantling the bark from a dead lodgepole pine, oblivious to the humans watching from below.

Woodpeckers and their brethren are among the most helpful of bird species, according to Steve Shunk, owner of Paradise Birding: More than 50 other species rely on cavities they peck into trees.

Among them are bufflehead ducks, flammulated owls, bluebirds, flying squirrels and, to the chagrin of more than a few woodpecker researchers, tree snakes.

Woodpeckers also keep the sap flowing and the beetles moving, which helps other species cop an easy meal.

If it weren't for sapsuckers drilling holes, hummingbirds wouldn't have much to eat during the northern migration each spring.

During a day of looking last spring, the groups I was with spotted nine woodpecker species. We walked the south fork kiosk in the Metolius Preserve, a parcel of land owned and preserved by the nonprofit Deschutes Land Trust, and fire-scarred Cache Creek, which flows from Mount Washington to the Metolius River.

It's almost as though the Metolius Basin, with its subalpine meadows, mixed conifer forests and riparian zones with aspen, was designed with woodpeckers in mind.
 
METOLIUS BIRDING
 
Metolius Basin: The Metolius River is famous for gushing full-born from a spring near Black Butte, but its basin is much bigger. The river's basin drains the east side of Santiam Pass, beneath Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson, before joining the Deschutes River. Much of the land is open to public use in the Deschutes National Forest.

Metolius Preserve: The Bend-based Deschutes Land Trust owns and protects from development more than 10 parcels of land in the upper Deschutes River Basin, including the Metolius Preserve. Driving directions. 

Finding woodpeckers: They can be anywhere in the Metolius Basin, but some spots stand out. A colorful map/guide describes 23 locations in the basin, with the best habitat and most likely species.

For more central Oregon locations, look on the East Cascades Audubon Society's website at ecbcbirds.org.

Birding trails: Look online at oregonbirdingtrails.org for five mapped birding routes in Oregon: the Cascades (including Metolius Basin); Basin and Range; Willamette Valley; Klamath Basin; and coast. These driving tours detail stops that include walking/canoeing/viewing-blind options, plus camping. Print brochures online or watch for free copies at visitor centers. (For Washington, go to wa.audubon.org/birds_GreatWABirdingTrail.html.)

Woodpecker tours: Private tours in the Metolius Basin are offered for $75 (half day) or $130 (full day) through paradisebirding.com.

Secret stop: The Sisters Ranger Station, at Pine Street and U.S. 20 in Sisters, is an under-the-radar birding hot spot. A white-headed woodpecker was at the feeder when I called the station; 541-549-7700, www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/.

Books: Must-haves include "Birds of Oregon" by Roger Burrows and Jeff Gilligan, Lone Pine Publishing, and "The Owl and the Woodpecker" by Paul Bannick, Mountaineers Books.