Just a little interesting piece (hopefully). I have a 14 foot stump of a huge ponderosa next to my deck. While putting an eye-ring in the top for canopy stretching, i thought hey... let's drill a hole. So I drilled out a 1.4 inch hole about 5 inches from the top, then used a coupla drill bits to try to hollow out a nesting cavity. Ended up with a cavity about the size of my (large) fist, but 1/3 full of tendrils and wood tufts.
Anyhow, 2 days later, I'm out on the deck and hear a red-breasted nuthatch YANKing nearby. They have been around all winter (more than usual). I and my dog move away from the tree stump, and immediately 2 red-breasted nuthatches come in and start trying to remove sawdust and chips from the hole. They've been at it most of the day. Don't know if they will nest (it is only 5 feet from the deck), but pretty cool!! I don't believe I've ever had them nest in one of my 58 birdboxes, or anywhere on the property. I know Steve Bouricius used to have luck with red-breasted nuthatches nesting about 15 feet up where he would top a tree, and then make a nesting cavity out of a 1 foot chuck of the trunk, which he would then remount on top of the tall stump. Stay safe all. Davis 4 mi NW of Lyons at 6,000 ft in open Ponderosa and rocks. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGiNt0AL%3DUr9z86gKvWNEnxVJC6x9ax57LWY%3DhdO9Yf6rmFDpw%40mail.gmail.com.
