I read Jim the Wingnut's "9-Woodpecker Day" article in Wednesday's STrib, and thought about our own woodpecker heaven... At two times of the year, we, like many Minnesotans, have 7 of the 9 species in our area.
All year: Downy, Hairy, Red-belled, Pileated Spring & fall: + Red-headed (they nest nearby, but not here) Spring, Summer, Fall: + Yellow-bellied Sapsucker & Flicker THIS winter, however, we are also hosting 3 flickers!! 1 female and 2 males have been seen together several times, so I know there are 3. I am AMAZED, that in this cold of a year, they have stayed! Or, maybe these are some of those 'snowbird' northern flickers that have come down from the really cold to the just very cold of MN for the winter!!! Wish I could be like Audubon; go out and band them, to see if they are here all year or not... I keep suet in 3 feeders for the woodpeckers and the other winter survivors. Trying to stay ahead of their appetites... Went out the other day and found that in their hunger they had torn the front off 1 of the feeders! The pileated's have also torn open a huge hole in a lightning-struck tree. Probably now a good place for smaller birds to spend the night. Holly Peirson Columbus, SE Anoka Co For interesting info on how birds survive winter, there's a chapter in Thor Hansen's book "Feathers" that talks about how birds use muscles to control their downy insulation, and Bernd Heinrich has written several books that talk about winter survival. And there are many magazine articles on this fascinating topic... ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
