FRANKFORT — Leaves crunch under Kasia Bradley’s boots as she walks through the woods on Kentucky State University’s campus, listening for another sound — the knocking of a woodpecker against a tree.
“You hear it?” Bradley said, noting the volume of the knocking. “It’s probably red-bellied.”
She thought she had heard the call of a red-bellied woodpecker earlier that December afternoon, and she’s seen the bird on both sides of campus. “That’s just an ear over time that I’m like, ‘Oh, can I distinguish what bird that is?’ Bradley said.
Bradley, an extension associate for forestry and natural resources at the university, has been spending a lot of time in these woods this year because of the woodpeckers, or what she calls “ecosystem engineers.” The holes woodpeckers create to build nests are sometimes reused by songbirds like chickadees or bluebirds, creating habitat for other species.
Supported by a grant from the National Wildlife Federation that promotes conservation of vulnerable species on university campuses, Bradley and her extension colleagues alongside community volunteers have been working to slowly reshape the woods along the Thorobred Trail into a place that better supports native birds…