(Posted by Brian Tennessen <[email protected]> via moumn.org)
This morning at Old Cedar Bridge, actually beyond the bridge, over where the trail from the bridge T's at the river, I observed a behavior I've not seen before--A Red-bellied Woodpecker with a small rodent, maybe a vole or shrew, maybe a mouse for that matter. The bird carrried this around for some time, then put it into a tree hole, seeming to cache it. It then flew off. I would imagine this is an opportunistic find that this Woodpecker came upon, maybe a cached kill of a Shrike for example. After caching, the woodpecker still had a small piece of innards that I presume it then ate, I have a photo of this as well. If anyone has seen this behavior before or thoughts on this, please comment. Quite an interesting behavior.. I talked with Dale Carlson and Steve Carlson about this after this occurred, as they were both down at the bridge as well, and showed them the photos on my camera. Neither of them had observed this behavior before. Please comment with any thoughts, similar observations you may have had in the past etc. https://flic.kr/p/2o2jjxc https://flic.kr/p/2o2gvbR Brian T. St. Paul MN ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
