Oh my gosh, in my post about the Say's phoebes eating ground bugs, I said that
they were box elder bugs. That's not right! They were earwigs! I had terrible
infestations of earwigs over the last few years and they're hard for me to
manage so I was glad when they didn't seem to be a problem this year even
though I saw the big hatching.
So, do you think that if phoebes would go after the earwigs?
Thanks, Deb Carstensen, Littleton, Arapahoe county
Sent from my iPhone
> On Feb 3, 2016, at 10:43 AM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleather...@msn.com> wrote:
>
> Recently Bob Righter posed some interesting questions on COBIRDS about what
> an individual Say's Phoebe he observed recently in the Denver area might be
> getting to eat under eaves. Once I got past my amazement that Bob is related
> by marriage to someone 103 years old, my private response to Bob guessed the
> answer might include European Paper Wasps (Polistes dominula), an introduced
> black-and-yellow wasp closely resembling a typical "yellowjacket" that
> reached CO in the early 2000s. They form small combs under eaves and have
> become quite common. By contrast, most yellowjacket wasps species nest in
> the ground, with two nesting in aerial "hives" in trees with the combs being
> surrounded by an elaborate, round, gray paper mache covering. Unhatched
> immature European Paper Wasps, dead or alive, in white-capped cells of these
> combs would seem the most likely source of nutrition for a curious
> insectivore investigating eaves. Flycatchers are known to favor bees and
> wasps, in some situations as much or more than flies. My reply to Bob
> included photos of the wasp and a related situation of a pewee with a
> yellowjacket in it bill. Bob suggested I post this to COBIRDS. Thinking the
> photos were a significant part of the response, and since photo sharing on
> COBIRDS is difficult (why is that?), I didn't take him up on his suggestion.
> Then he wondered further if perhaps what seems like more wintering Say's
> Phoebes this year than normal could be directly tied to the increasing
> presence of European Paper Wasps on our scene. I told him without direct
> evidence, it was a stretch, but a question worth continuing to investigate.
>
> So, I am asking, has anyone out there seen a Say's Phoebe visiting a little
> wasp comb under an eave? Have you seen any other bird species tearing apart
> a wasp comb under an eave (flicker, barn swallow, etc.)? Inquiring minds
> want to know. Assuming, hoping, some meaty anecdotes are out there, this
> might be the subject of a future "The Hungry Bird" column in "Colorado
> Birds". Thanks.
>
> Dave Leatherman
> Fort Collins
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