Red wolves #1803 and #2062 seem to be getting along well. They’re frequently seen together with, so far, no observed conflicts. With mating season (Feb.) fast approaching, this behavior is promising. While standing and watching the wolves I noticed a cat-like meow and a gentle tap, tap, tap coming from high up in the trees inside the wolf enclosure, a yellow-bellied sapsucker at work. These rather small sized woodpeckers drill evenly spaced wells into the bark of trees. The wellsRead more
Posts tagged: #woodpecker
Sapsucker
While walking through Explore the Wild I heard the cat-like call of a yellow-bellied sapsucker to my right. A closer look revealed two sapsuckers in a holly tree picking and eating the red berries of the small tree, a good opportunity to get a few photos. The two sapsuckers went back and forth from the trunk to hanging on branches to harvest the fruit of the holly. Here’s a few shots of the birds, both males. Read more
What’s all the ruckus?
As the red wolves relaxed, two male yellow-bellied sapsuckers, one of them a young bird, began to scuffle over who the trees inside the wolf enclosure actually belong to. The woodpeckers chased each other around the trees, flying back and forth, shuffling around and around the tree trunks. The female wolf carefully watched the fracas. At one point, the sapsuckers took off in aerial combat, fluttering to the ground. The wolf was up andRead more
Yellow-bellied
I was standing at the Secondary Black Bear Overlook. A whiny, scratchy, mew sound was coming from the shrubs just inside the chain-link fence and to the left. I knew from the sound that it was a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but I couldn’t see the bird. The woodpecker was making quite a bit of noise, but where was it. Finally, I could see the fresh wells drilled by the bird. The wells were on the main trunk of a viburnum whichRead more
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Time
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are woodpeckers. Unlike red-bellied, downy, hairy, and red-headed woodpeckers they’re not year round residents in our area. They typically arrive in the Piedmont in October and depart by April when they head north or retreat back into our mountains to nest. You might see one or two a bit earlier or later than October or April, but those individuals are the exception. Sapsuckers drill small, neatly aligned holes or wells into the bark of trees. The holesRead 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
Sap Sucking Woodpecker
You may have read about Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers here before. Type in sapsucker in the search box on the top right and you’ll see many posts which contain the word sapsucker (<- that’s just one). Here’s two – more. Why do I mention sapsucker so often? Read on (and read the three links above too). Sapsuckers are winter visitors here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. We start seeing them in October and most are gone by April. They go about their business quietly,Read more