Nature at its Best

I am a casual observer of nature. I especially enjoy seeing and learning about birds. I do not belong to a bird watching group. Neither will I travel to the ends of the Earth to see them. But I like them. EXCEPT for blackbirds and Starlings. These two seem to enjoy making a mess of things, congregating around humans and crapping all over everything. Of course, birds will "drop" wherever they are, but blackbirds and Starlings are especially egregious about it.

I do admire the Starlings' opportunistic behavior of developing nesting sites, such as pulling home siding apart at a seam, entering attics by tearing out vent screens, or setting up housekeeping in high-pressure sodium street lamps. But I don't like anything else about them.

Enter the Red Bellied Woodpecker. Here's a Bird I Like.

As long as it doesn't begin attacking the house.

In about mid-April, 2009, a Red Bellied Woodpecker constructed a nest in a dead limb of a Willow Oak tree in my backyard. This gave me the opportunity to observe its behavior on a daily basis, as well as learn its call. I now realize that I had heard a red-bellied woodpecker's call before, but did not know what it was. Initially I thought the bird was a Red-headed Woodpecker because "mine" does have red on its head - its red is actually called the cap, not the head. But it is not a Red-head. Even though it is called Red-bellied, one has to look hard to see the color on its breast. I call mine Rosie. Yeah, Rosie.

I have enjoyed seeing Rosie up close. Her nest is about 20 feet from our deck, and about 30 feet from the ground. Since April she has been faithfully incubating the eggs. They are apparently now hatched as yesterday I saw her make trip after trip to forage for food for her clutch. Red-bellied woodpeckers don't typically "peck" for food. They forage on the ground for insects, even catching mice, as well as catching insects on-the-fly. I have read that Rosie could even catch a live grasshopper, and then tightly tuck it - live - into a crevice in a tree for later dining. Cool!

I hope I get to see the juveniles, perhaps preening and stretching their wings before they abandon the nest - as all offspring should do!

Woodpecker UPDATE - June 27, 2009, Bird Today, Gone Tomorrow

Well, I had the simple pleasure of seeing only one juvenile Red Belly for a week or so. At least, I think it was just one. It would appear at the nest hole, looking about for its next meal to be delivered. This was during some of the hottest weather we have had and the fledgling had to be hot. I never saw it outside the nest, though. Since it has been about a week since I've seen it or its parents, I suppose it's vacated the premises - ahem, as all offspring should do.

However, almost as interesting as seeing the fledgling appear in the 'doorway' was seeing both parents foraging, and feeding the chick. I had thought I was seeing a very efficient mother quickly catching, and then feeding insects to her baby. Then, while observing through a pair of still-excellent 40 year old Yashica, 10x50 binoculars, I discovered that both mom and dad were sharing the burden. As soon as one brought in a meal and few back out to nature's deli, the other flew in with more bounty. As one of my daughters-in-law said, "Aw, that's sweet". She was right.