Hi Nari, I live off of Ellis Hollow Road (on Hartwood) and I have a pair of pileateds (and occasionally their offspring) that eat at our suet feeders several times a day, starting in May. They tend to disappear in late August and then we don't see them for the entire winter. I've always wondered why they don't come to the suet feeder in the winter. Any ideas?
Best, Sandra Sandra L. Babcock Clinical Professor, International Human Rights Clinic Faculty Director, Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide 158A Myron Taylor Hall Cornell Law School Ithaca, NY 14853-4901 Tel. (607) 255-5278 slb...@cornell.edu www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org -----Original Message----- From: bounce-121587338-73410...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-121587338-73410...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Upstate NY Birding digest Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2017 12:03 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: cayugabirds-l digest: June 08, 2017 CAYUGABIRDS-L Digest for Thursday, June 08, 2017. 1. Pileated eating suet 2. Re: Pileated eating suet 3. Grackle and Fish Crow(?) Observation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Pileated eating suet From: "W. Larry Hymes" <w...@cornell.edu> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2017 07:11:55 -0400 X-Message-Number: 1 In response to Nari's post, every once in awhile we too have had PILEATED WOODPECKERS working on our suet feeders -- both male and female. It's a little comical watching such a large bird clinging to such a relatively small feeder and successfully extracting suet. Larry -- ================================ W. Larry Hymes 120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 (H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu ================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Pileated eating suet From: Judith Thurber <jathur...@yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2017 07:22:12 -0400 X-Message-Number: 2 Pileated are currently feeding several times a day at suet feeders on nails on side of tree. It seems they must be nesting nearby and come for reliable food supply. (There have been periods in past years where I haven't seen them at feeder for months at a time.) Also Bluebirds balance on metal holders as best they can to get suet, but prefer to find scraps on the ground as do the Catbirds. Judy Thurber Liverpool Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 7, 2017, at 7:11 AM, W. Larry Hymes <w...@cornell.edu> wrote: > > In response to Nari's post, every once in awhile we too have had PILEATED > WOODPECKERS working on our suet feeders -- both male and female. It's a > little comical watching such a large bird clinging to such a relatively small > feeder and successfully extracting suet. > > Larry > > -- > > ================================ > W. Larry Hymes > 120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 > (H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu > ================================ > > > -- > > 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/ > > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Grackle and Fish Crow(?) Observation From: Sandy Wold <sandra.w...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2017 11:04:51 -0400 X-Message-Number: 3 Yesterday, while working in my garden in downtown Ithaca, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a black bird fly into the Norway Maple. I assumed it was a grackle as they are nesting in the tree (and had a fledgling recently land in the street). A Fed Ex guy stopped last week to relocate it to the grass. Anyway, I then heard a loud scuffle in the tree, looked up, saw a larger-than-grackle sized bird bolt out with something in its mouth. My first thought was, "crow took a chick!" Then about eight grackles chased after the crow scolding it up and over the towering Sugar Maple nearby. I did not have my binoculars, but the object in the crow's mouth appeared to be about walnut-size or avocado-pit-size and black. The object was predominantly round in and ball-shape, but I could kind of make out a large head and tiny body with damp feathers as the chase zipped by me in all of about two seconds before the crow and object were out of my view. After the excitement, or trauma, depending on your perspective, I guessed it was a Fish Crow on the grounds that 1. they have been the dominant crow call I've heard in my neighborhood this spring 2. it almost passed for a grackle based on size (so smaller than American Crow) 3. I heard a Fish Crow call about thirty minutes later and no American Crows all day. Last year, American Crow was the dominant crow call I heard. I found many things interesting about this observation. 1. It appears there is a colony in this tree, and this is the first time I observed a visible count of what appeared to be an entire colony defense system. There was silence in the tree as the chase ensued. Did any stay behind? This flying after a crow is different than watching a robin or sparrow fly into the tree and just get scolded (not chased)...where I could only hear but not visibly count. 2. The crow flew in as if it "knew" exactly what it wanted, where to go, and how it would leave. The entire theft took about five seconds from start to flight over maple. I've heard it calling all spring from within a block of my house. So it probably has been "watching" grackles to figure out where it nests....a bit creepy. Yes, so intelligent, as we know!!! 3. I usually hear the Fish Crows dominate about five blocks in another direction, and have never seen grackles nest in my yard. So I think this explains why a bird would want to change nest locations every year. And has anyone ever speculated why the Osprey at the inlet at the Newman Golf Course stopped building its nest? Great Horned Owl? Did the GHO nest again nearby? 4. I have since noticed one grackle "standing on guard" perched on a phone wire looking directly at the nesting tree. I never thought about it before, but after this incident, I think that is what it may be doing. 5. I did see a grackle once dash into the nesting tree like a lightening bolt when a robin entered. Robin left promptly but lagged for a moment. *"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come ALIVE, for what the world needs is people who have come ALIVE." - Dr. Howard Thurman, American Theologian, Clergyman and Activist (1900-1981) * Sandra (Sandy) Wold Author/Originator/Designer/Publisher of Cayuga Basin Bioregion Map, www.sites.google.com/site/cayugabioregionmap <https://sites.google.com/site/cayugabioregionmap/> Educator, www.linkedin.com/pub/sandra-sandy-wold/a7/114/877 Artist, www.Sandy-Wold.com <http://www.sandy-wold.squarespace.com/> *To be astonished is one of the surest ways not to be old too quickly.* - Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette --- END OF DIGEST -- 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/ --
