Top Photo: Amur maple seeds. It’s a warm day in February, just the weather for strolling around campus. Here’s a mere handful of what you might see while you’re out there this week. There’s much more out there than this small sample of goodies suggests. So what are you waiting for, get out and have a look around!Read more
Posts tagged: #downy
How Many Holes Would a Woodpecker Peck
Top Photo: Wood chips expelled from under-construction hole in willow. I first noticed the wood chips scattered about on the ground. I then heard the unmistakable sound of a wood-pecking bird hard at work, rap, tap, tap…rap, tap, tap. Could it be a woodpecker? a nuthatch? At first, I couldn’t see what was rapping and tapping away above me, that is, until the noisemaker stuck its head out of a hole twenty feet up in a willow snag on theRead more
Observations on a Woodpecker
What is the woodpecker on the right doing? It’s excavating a hole in a pine tree. At the moment the photo was taken it was looking inside the hole to see how the work was going, perhaps assessing what needs to be done next, or both. There were already four holes in this tree when work began, all above the hole currently being excavated. They, the other holes, looked to be unusable due to decay. In fact, the tree brokeRead more
Drum, drum, drum
The daylight hours are increasing, the weather getting warmer and the local birds are singing, some birds, that is. Woodpeckers, as vocal as they can sometimes be, don’t have a sweet song to sing to attract a mate or proclaim their territorial boundaries. They, instead of singing a tune to announce their intentions, seek out the most resonant piece of tree limb, trunk, clapboard siding or rain gutter and drum out their message. There are eight species of woodpecker thatRead more