My best memory of feeder birds caching was a number of years ago on a warm fall/winter day and I had my sliding door open so I could take pictures of the birds coming to the feeders on my deck. I had my camera on a tripod just inside the open door. I was doing something on the computer on the kitchen table and a Red-breasted Nuthatch flew into the house with a sunflower seed in its bill. It landed on the tripod, looked around, and tucked the seed into a crevice where a leg came off the base, then flew away back outside. Six feet away from me.
No matter how good their spatial memory, I knew it wasn’t going to retrieve that one. I love Red-breasted Nuthatches! Kevin From: bounce-125158003-3493...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-125158003-3493...@list.cornell.edu> On Behalf Of Robyn Bailey Sent: Friday, November 20, 2020 4:33 PM To: Chris R. Pelkie <chris.pel...@cornell.edu>; Peter Saracino <petersarac...@gmail.com> Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] Birds' secret caches Working from home, and my home being a log cabin, I see birds throughout the day coming and caching seeds in between the logs and windowsills…anywhere they can fit it. Mostly chickadee, titmouse, and red-bellied woodpecker are the ones I see doing it. It’s fun to think of them using my house as a larder, and using their spatial memory (or some luck) to find them later. I wonder how many pounds of seeds are collectively stashed in the crevices of my house right now? 😊 Robyn Bailey From: bounce-125157588-15067...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-125157588-15067...@list.cornell.edu> <bounce-125157588-15067...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-125157588-15067...@list.cornell.edu>> On Behalf Of Chris R. Pelkie Sent: Friday, November 20, 2020 2:29 PM To: Peter Saracino <petersarac...@gmail.com<mailto:petersarac...@gmail.com>> Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Birds' secret caches You’ll want to pry them out. Some years ago, a squirrel stashed sunflower seeds into my exhaust pipe. OMG, there’s nothing on earth that stinks as bad as burning sunflower seeds! (:-) ______________________ Chris Pelkie Data Manager; IT Support Center for Conservation Bioacoustics Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ccb/ On Nov 20, 2020, at 12:37 , Peter Saracino <petersarac...@gmail.com<mailto:petersarac...@gmail.com>> wrote: So I hung strings of Christmas lights on the porch the other day but didn't put the bulbs in yet. They're easier to string without the bulbs. I finally got around to screwing the bulbs in this morning only to find single, unopened black oil sunflower seeds in a few of the places into which one would screw the actual bulb. I began to wonder how they ever could have gotten into so tight a space until I realized they must be places where the birds I'm feeding are catching food for a later date! I think that's kind of neat! The birds are helping me decorate! Well, sort of. Happy Thanksgiving to all!! -- 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/ --
