I don't know what was in the photo or what else the Red-headed Woodpeckers have been eating, but this afternoon at South Mays Point Road I watched one in a tree just next to the road, eating wild grapes. It then flew to one of the dead trees, but not the tree with the cavity I believe they have been using. Both adults were present in the dead trees, but I did not see them approach that tree during the 20 minutes we were there, although someone else reported on eBird today seeing one of them apparently feeding an unseen nestling.
--Dave Nutter
On Aug 24, 2013, at 10:40 PM, martin borko <mbo...@stny.rr.com> wrote:
Is there any chance that the fruits are virginia creeper and not wild grape?MartyOn Aug 22, 2013, at 10:48 AM, John Confer wrote:<confer.vcf>I have seen Red-headed Woodpeckers caching acorns. At at least one location, they cached food somewhat as I have seen in videos of Acorn Woodpeckers, putting them in shallow, tiny holes in the surface of the tree trunk. This was at Presquille in fall probably a couple decades ago. so you might wonder about the accuracy of the memory. It was a pretty striking occasion with several birds flying over a parking lot to and from the acorn source to the storage trees, so I'm pretty sure that is what they were doing.
Cheers,
John
On 8/20/2013 7:06 PM, Anne Clark 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 ClarkOn 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:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!----Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!----Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!----Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!--
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