Hey there's a thought...caching food...definitely something that woodpeckers do. Anyway, woodpeckers do indeed bring out fecal material (a mix of droppings and wood chips rather than a sac (songbirds only I think)), but one might have to watch for a number of hours before it happens.
I may have to head up there myself...I know, what took me so long, right? Marie Marie Read Wildlife Photography 452 Ringwood Road Freeville NY 13068 USA Phone 607-539-6608 e-mail m...@cornell.edu http://www.marieread.com ***NEW*** Music of the Birds Vol 1 ebook for Apple iPad now available from iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/music-of-the-birds-v1/id529347014?mt=11 ________________________________________ From: bounce-107847794-5851...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-107847794-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Dave Nutter [nutter.d...@me.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 7:32 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Red-headed Woodpeckers at May's Point I'm not surprised at them eating fruit, which I've seen many woodpecker species do many times, but I am surprised they would feed fruit to nestlings. Is it possible they are caching the food? Has anyone seen the adults emerge with fecal sacs? Would this species carry off fecal sacs? Nice photos by the way, Paul, and thanks for taking the time to observe carefully. --Dave Nutter On Aug 20, 2013, at 07:06 PM, Anne Clark <anneb.cl...@gmail.com> wrote: 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<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/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/ --
