Have not seen them bringing out fecal sacs, and have been looking for that.
Any seen that? It is definitely possible this is food caching. Looked up the
background in Kaufman’s Lives of North American Birds. It mentions caching of
acorns, beechnuts, not berries. Says they are the most omnivorous of
woodpeckers. But why would they cache insects? Seems a poor choice.
Now, I am wondering about the timing of this pair at this location. When were
they first seen excavating the cavity? Says a second brood is possible;
incubation 12-13 days and fledging in 27-31 days. That predicts fledging in 39
to 44 days from onset. How does that match with dates when they were
excavating? Does anyone have the key dates?
Paul Schmitt
From: Dave Nutter
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 7:32 PM
To: Cayugabirds-L@cornell.edu
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
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