Red-headed woodpecker continues at the same white oak in Palmer Woods this morning (as pointed out to me by CU student Jeremy), hanging out on the north facing side, looking to be making OCD adjustments to its granary.
I had a follow-up message last week, including photos, that may have been swallowed up by the listserve downtime, so I'm including it below. Suan Begin forwarded message: > From: Suan Hsi Yong <suan.y...@gmail.com> > Date: November 13, 2017 at 5:40:41 PM EST > To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> > Subject: Re: Red-headed WP @ Palmer Woods > > Here are some photos of the red-headed woodpecker at Palmer Woods yesterday > morning: > > https://www.facebook.com/suan.yong/posts/10215006724459538 > > It spent most of the time I was there working the end of a dead branch to > extract some unidentified food, then flying to the trunk of a nearby white > oak to stash it in some nook or cranny. Since it seemed to be excavating them > from a dead branch, I had assumed the food was some manner of grubs, but the > photos show them to be acorn halves. The photos posted above show the halves > with shell, other photos had them fully shelled, revealing just an amorphous > yellow blob. > > I'm now curious about the source of the acorns, as I did not see the bird > bring any acorns to that branch. Had it already completed a "collection > phase" earlier, and was now in processing mode? Or was it working on somebody > else's stash (e.g., of a squirrel)? Anyhow, the activity certainly piqued the > interest of some onlookers I mentioned yesterday, first a pileated > woodpecker, then several blue jays, all of whom were chased off by the feisty > red-headed woodpecker. > > Suan -- 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/ --
