I have a veritable plantation of Virginia Creeper here by the lake in Lansing,
in the woods and on trees by the water. I have seen NO fruit on any of the
vines anywhere, so most likely the RH Woodpeckers are picking grapes, which are
fruiting now.
Donna Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: martin borko
To: John Confer
Cc: Anne Clark ; Paul ; Cayugabirds-L@cornell.edu
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Red-headed Wo caching food
Is there any chance that the fruits are virginia creeper and not wild grape?
Marty
On Aug 22, 2013, at 10:48 AM, John Confer wrote:
I have seen Red-headed Woodpeckers caching acorns. At at least one
location, they cached food somewhat as I have seen in videos of Acorn
Woodpeckers, putting them in shallow, tiny holes in the surface of the tree
trunk. This was at Presquille in fall probably a couple decades ago. so you
might wonder about the accuracy of the memory. It was a pretty striking
occasion with several birds flying over a parking lot to and from the acorn
source to the storage trees, so I'm pretty sure that is what they were doing.
Cheers,
John
On 8/20/2013 7:06 PM, Anne Clark wrote:
Back in the 80's when I was living in SW Michigan (near Kellogg
Biological Station, in Delton, MI), a pair of red-headed woodpeckers brought
their fledglings every year to eat mulberries at a productive group of trees.
More unusual that they would take them to protein-needy nestlings (albeit
very late nestlings). But robins in the same Michigan property fed their
nestlings on mulberries.
Anne Clark
On Aug 20, 2013, at 6:51 PM, Paul wrote:
Spent about three hours watching the Red-headed Woodpeckers at May’s
Point this morning. Very active until about 10 am. Saw an interesting sequence
when a Merlin made a pass at the nest cavity,, actually several passes to which
the adult RHW responded with loud calls and some defensive attacks.
Thereafter, the pair were on sentry duty, one in an adjacent cavity watching
south and the other to the north in a tree along the river. The Merlin was in
the area for about 5 minutes. They stayed on alert for about 20 minutes longer
before resuming activity.
More interesting was a discovery on what they are bringing into the
nest cavity. (Have not yet seen chicks at the opening. Has anyone?) While
sometimes, I can see that they are bringing insects such as dragonflies, at
other times it appeared to be round objects. Did not seem possible to be
acorns. Now, I’ve posted some images on my blog
(http://birds-n-blooms.blogspot.com/) which show an adult bringing wild grapes
to the cavity. There are ripe grapes on the vines in the area. On my first
visit (July 24), I recorded an adult picking Woody Nightshade berries from
vines at the base of dead trees to the north east of the nest tree. Had not
expected woodpeckers to be eating fruit.
Paul Schmitt
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
Welcome and Basics
Rules and Information
Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
Archives:
The Mail Archive
Surfbirds
BirdingOnThe.Net
Please submit your observations to eBird!
--
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
Welcome and Basics
Rules and Information
Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
Archives:
The Mail Archive
Surfbirds
BirdingOnThe.Net
Please submit your observations to eBird!
--
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
Welcome and Basics
Rules and Information
Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
Archives:
The Mail Archive
Surfbirds
BirdingOnThe.Net
Please submit your observations to eBird!
--
<confer.vcf>
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
Welcome and Basics
Rules and Information
Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
Archives:
The Mail Archive
Surfbirds
BirdingOnThe.Net
Please submit your observations to eBird!
--
--
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/
--
