Top Photo: Male downy woodpecker jets out of hole it’s been working on (2/19/22). On January 12 of this year I reported on a downy woodpecker that had been excavating two, three, maybe even four holes within inches of each other in a black willow tree on the north side of the wetlands. He’s at it again. Link to last month’s excavations. The current hole he’s drilling is in the same tree. This time the single hole is about fourRead more
Posts tagged: #Downy Woodpecker
More Stuff You Might See
Top Photo: On a cool fall morning, Eno, one of our red wolves on display, yawns deeply before resting his weary head. Bald cypress, carpenter bees, musk turtles, ground hogs and others headline Nature Watch this week. Bald cypress has put out an impressive amount of cones this year. Carpenter bee activity is far greater in the spring when over-wintering adults emerge and vie for territories and nest sites. However, they’re still active now. The bees drill nice, neat 3/8”Read more
Odes, Leps, Herps, and some Aves
Green Darners have been ovipositing in the Wetlands (3/13). Up until this Tuesday I had only seen males patrolling the area. I was finally able to confirm the emergence of Fragile Forktails (Ischnura posita). I photographed a damselfly a week ago (3/7) but wasn’t sure of its identity, although I was fairly confident that it was a forktail. I’ve seen these forktails here at the Museum as early as mid February. It’s curious that I haven’t seen one earlier thisRead more
Let’s not forget the others
With so much talk about herons lately I don’t want to forget the other residents of the Museum’s wild parts. Here’s what some of them have been up to. A few birds… Several turtles… And the heat goes on… And something left over from summer… It wouldn’t be out of the question for those eggs to have hatched. It is very much like spring on this last week of January. The Red-shouldered Hawks were up performing their aerial courtship displays,Read more
Who’s Nesting
A Cooper’s Hawk was seen carrying prey on the 7th of June. The hawk appeared to be a female and was flying in the direction of the pines which surround the Ellerbee Creek Railway tracks near the train tunnel. This is the area in which Cooper’s Hawks nested last year. The fact that this bird was carrying prey, and was a female, seems to indicate that there were young Cooper’s Hawks in those pines waiting to be fed. I’ve yetRead more
Where Are the Insects?
Few insects have been reported over the past several weeks — it’s cold outside! But, even with the colder weather there are still insects among us. If you look hard enough you can find a few crickets under the grass alongside the path on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop, perhaps a grasshopper, or a few beetles. But there’s more than just a few crickets, a grasshopper and a beetle or two around. Consider all the dragonflies, beetles, grasshoppers,Read more