[cayugabirds-l] Failed Thrashers? starting over?
For a number of years a Brown Thrasher has made a tradition of singing from certain trees in my yard. In early to mid May he sings from their very tops, which overlook about 30 acres of abandoned orchards on the hillside below. The show is pretty much over before June comes in. From this I've guessed that nesting has gotten underway somewhere in the shrub-tangled orchards below. So I was surprised this year when he suddenly reappeared on his springtime lookouts in the third week of June, very prominently singing. I guessed something had gone wrong. It turned out that my neighbor had rented a baby backhoe and torn up a few acres of shrubs in the farthest part of the orchard - at the peak of nesting season, no less! Whether my resurgent Thrasher lost his brood to this ill-timed habitat modification I don't know. I thought it was getting kind of late to start over, but he still seems keen. This morning he was singing from very prominent perches, and I watched him for a while. Then I wandered a short way down the hill. I was having a peek at some Blue Jays feeding young, when behind me I heard loud smacking notes, and there was another Brown Thrasher moving about in the shrubbery, eyeing me nervously. Good sign! And I can hear that delightful singing again out the window as I write this. -Geo Geo Kloppel Bowmaker Restorer 227 Tupper Road Spencer NY 14883 607 564 7026 g...@cornell.edu geoklop...@gmail.com -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] fruity sapsuckers
Of all the birds enjoying our fruit-laden cherry tree right now, the most surprising is a pair of YB Sapsuckers. I have seen them flying away with one cherry held in the beak; how they actually eat it I'm not sure. This morning the female hopped around me, scolding while holding a fat ripe cherry in her mouth. Maybe she meant to feed it to some young? Nancy W. Dickinson Director's Administrative Assistant Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 254-4597 -- 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/ --
Re: [cayugabirds-l] fruity sapsuckers
I can share an observation on that. We've been watching a YB Sapsucker nest for the last month or so. At this point, the yammering from the still hidden chicks is quite loud, and the 2 parents have been coming in about every 30-60 sec with the next load. A few days ago, when many other birds were hitting on our wild black cherries, I saw one YBSA parent (M) arrive at the nest with a quite large ripe cherry. Just before entering, and probably gagging one of the chicks, he thought better of that plan and flew to an adjacent tree landing on an inclined branch that also happened to have something of a split in the bark. He laid the full cherry into the split then took several whacks at it with his bill to pulp it. He carefully lifted the pit out, spat it over the side, then scooped up the pulp and flew back to the nest where by the sound, it was greedily consumed. On Jun 30, 2011, at 10:01 AM, Nancy W Dickinson wrote: Of all the birds enjoying our fruit-laden cherry tree right now, the most surprising is a pair of YB Sapsuckers. I have seen them flying away with one cherry held in the beak; how they actually eat it I'm not sure. This morning the female hopped around me, scolding while holding a fat ripe cherry in her mouth. Maybe she meant to feed it to some young? Nancy W. Dickinson Director's Administrative Assistant Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 254-4597 -- 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/ -- __ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- 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/ --
