[EBB Sightings] predation

it's funny, because I hike by their habitat almost daily and have yet 
to see a carcass, though I suppose the coyotes would travel with them 
way out of sight. By the same token, this valley (Rossmoor) is crawling 
with geese and ducks and I never see predation of them either. Dead 
deer are found weekly, and the landscapers are positive of lions here, 
one even cast a footprint in mud with some Fixall he happened to have 
on hand, and it was a huge print. The coyotes are very bold and I have 
a picture of a half-breed coyote with a snout the size of an Alsatian 
that was taken in mid-afternoon by our staff photographer. I simply 
can't believe that they wouldn't take turkeys but no sign... I will ask 
an old-timer gardener here who knows every inch of the valley if he has 
seen a pile of feathers.

The large flocks seem to have dispersed for the spring. Where I was 
seeing 30 or so at a time on a regular basis, now I see smaller 
groupings. Five on the golf course last week, eight or ten in a front 
yard, etc etc. I think I was very lucky when I spotted over 70 in one 
spot last fall. I seriously couldn't count them all. As the ticks are 
now out, I am loath to beat the same bushes as much in that particular 
spot.

And I saw five last Friday afternoon right by Camino Pablo across from 
the reservoir in the Tilden boundary. This was from my car on the way 
home.

I do not know if its of note since I am new to this list, but I have 
been spotting Black Phoebes near the creek that runs through the middle 
of the golf course for the last three Mondays.

I have one other question. Most  smaller birds seem to have an 
approximately equal size on maturity. But I saw what I thought to be an 
acorn woodpecker last week, of which we have tons here, who was much 
larger than the usual, yet his markings seemed very similar (it was but 
a quick glance before he flew off). What attracted me was his call, 
which seemed like a crow at first. Have any of you noticed a  variance 
in size or was I seeing a different species? I imagined a Pileated but 
I saw no real crest of any sort, just the fluffy red top.