I have been enjoying being home this summer, yet have been remiss in setting up my usual feeding stations. The combination of rich sunshine and regular rainfall has led to My Pagoda Dogwood trees being heavy with berries. They fruit this time of year every year, and I usually find Robins and Red-eyed Vireos hopping to for the week of plenitude, it is always fun to be 2 feet away from a treetop species , even though a screen door. In the past week, I have tallied the following species feeding in a single tree: 1. American Robin (1 adult and 3 juvenal) 2. Baltimore Oriole (2 juvenal) 3. Blue Jays (at least 3) 4. Red-eyed Vireo (at least 2) 5. Common Grackle (at least 2) 6. House Finch (at least 4) 7. House Sparrow (2) 8. Red-bellied Woodpecker (1 juvenile) 9. Downy Woodpecker (1 male) 10. Northern Cardinal (1 pair of adults and 2 juvenal) 11. Cedar Waxwing (1 adult) 12. Grey Squirrel 13. Eastern Chipmunk
The Robins and Orioles are pretty much resident in the tree, just jumping from branch to branch and gorging themselves. The Grackles are very awkward, but have found some of the berries on the ground and in the gutters that the tree overhangs. They have served me very well by flipping the maple seeds left there over the edge and to the ground. The vireo flies in, eats two berries whole and then flies off to some other spot - nesting second brood? As much as they show up, they cannot be eating them all themselves. The Woodpeckers eat some berries, and then poke around the dead stubs of pruned branches, but the only food I see them ingesting are the bb-sized purple berries that adorn the tree. I have a tree in the back yard overhanging my waterfall that is not just as full of berries, but they are still apple green, not ready for consumption. I look forward to next week, to see if I can add to my berry-feeding list...Good birding... Mark Alt Brooklyn Center, Hennepin County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
