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. ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
