On Friday at Carpenter Nature Center (Washington County) we banded a female
red breasted nuthatch. She had a brood patch indicating she could be nesting
nearby.
Sue Plankis has heard a red breasted nuthatch several times at Carpenter
this spring so this confirms her observation.
Larry Sirvio
----- Original Message -----
From: "alyssa" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 12:24 PM
Subject: [mou-net] Red-breasted Nuthatch (Hennepin Co.)
This late morning, I was delighted to hear a male Red-breasted Nuthatch
singing in the pine forest at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis
Park. Although it is not all too uncommon to find them in southern MN in the
summer, (i.e. currently, there are apparently some breeding birds in Ramsey
County), I thought it was a bit unusual for the following reasons: 1) R-B
Nuthatches were scarce this winter, and 2) I briefly hiked the pine forest
trail here yesterday, but I didn't hear anything.
He was singing pretty consistently while I was there for about 45 minutes.
There was a clump of three Red Pines, just northeast of the feeding station
in the pine forest, that he sung from most of the time. At one point, he
flew westward and started singing inconsistently from the deciduous forest,
but eventually returned to his original spot. I did not have binoculars, but
I did get to see him a few times; at one point I saw his striped head. When
I left, he was singing a quicker, more stacatto version of his song, where
he "honked" about 15 times in a row instead of the more typical, drawn-out
3-4 note song. He did not vocalize when White-breasted Nuthatches were
vocalizing.
To me, it looks like he's establishing a territory. I'll have to listen and
look for him more when I'm at the nature center next week.
Good birding!
Alyssa DeRubeis
Golden Valley, Hennepin Co.
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