Back in the 80's when I was living in SW Michigan (near Kellogg Biological Station, in Delton, MI), a pair of red-headed woodpeckers brought their fledglings every year to eat mulberries at a productive group of trees.
More unusual that they would take them to protein-needy nestlings (albeit very late nestlings). But robins in the same Michigan property fed their nestlings on mulberries. Anne Clark On Aug 20, 2013, at 6:51 PM, Paul wrote: > Spent about three hours watching the Red-headed Woodpeckers at May’s Point > this morning. Very active until about 10 am. Saw an interesting sequence > when a Merlin made a pass at the nest cavity,, actually several passes to > which the adult RHW responded with loud calls and some defensive attacks. > Thereafter, the pair were on sentry duty, one in an adjacent cavity watching > south and the other to the north in a tree along the river. The Merlin was > in the area for about 5 minutes. They stayed on alert for about 20 minutes > longer before resuming activity. > > More interesting was a discovery on what they are bringing into the nest > cavity. (Have not yet seen chicks at the opening. Has anyone?) While > sometimes, I can see that they are bringing insects such as dragonflies, at > other times it appeared to be round objects. Did not seem possible to be > acorns. Now, I’ve posted some images on my blog > (http://birds-n-blooms.blogspot.com/) which show an adult bringing wild > grapes to the cavity. There are ripe grapes on the vines in the area. On my > first visit (July 24), I recorded an adult picking Woody Nightshade berries > from vines at the base of dead trees to the north east of the nest tree. Had > not expected woodpeckers to be eating fruit. > > Paul Schmitt > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
