Red-headed Woodpecker Family

I saw my first Blue Jay Barrens Red-headed Woodpecker about ten years ago.  It was a juvenile that frequented the feeder for about three months in late summer.  Two years ago a single adult began visiting the feeder.  It was joined by another the next spring and the two became regular visitors to the feeder.  A few weeks ago, I noticed both birds making frequent feeder visits and leaving the area with a bill full of feed.  This was a distinct change from their previous habit of taking small amounts of feed to be consumed on the dead apple snag just beside the feeder.  I suspected they were collecting food for some youngsters.  Sometimes they left with a bill full of cracked corn.

Other times they loaded up with sunflower seeds.

A few days ago, some juveniles showed up with the parents.  I can hear them calling from the trees, but I haven’t been able to get an accurate count.

I know there are at least two, because I spotted two on the ground helping themselves to cracked corn.  The young woodpeckers are the birds in the photo that are not the Blue Jay.

The adults are now collecting feed and flying into the nearby trees.  Unfortunately, that hides them from my view.

This adult sometimes uses the top of an old utility pole as a feeding platform.

The utility pole is the only place I’ve been able to get a glimpse of the young birds being fed.  The parent lays its sunflower seeds on top of the pole and then opens them one at a time for the youngster.

I’ve included a short video of the young woodpecker being fed by its parent.  The start of the film is a bit shaky because I was shooting through a partially opened window and go tangled up in a potted plant on the windowsill.  I was trying to keep the pot from falling to the floor while I centered on my subject.  About seven seconds in to the video, a caterpillar on its silk thread drops into the right side of the frame and quickly swings out of the picture.  The video can also be seen on YouTube by clicking HERE.  A second, slightly longer, video of the same subject may be seen by clicking HERE.

Nesting Song Sparrows

It is natural for one of my garden fence posts to be topped by a Song Sparrow.  Through most of the spring and summer, a Song Sparrow uses this perch to sing his song of ownership over a prime nesting territory.  The bounds of that territory may match the garden fence, because the nests are mostly to be found somewhere in the garden.

This juniper seems to be the preferred location of the first nest of the season.  That’s probably because this shrub is the best source of cover early in the year.  Had it not been for the sparrows, I would have removed the juniper long ago.  I do trim it back severely each year so it doesn’t take up too much gardening space.

The pruning tends to make the branches more dense.  I can hear when a nest is active, but finding the nest without disturbing it is nearly impossible.

It’s after the fact that I discover the nest locations.  This shot is from the same angle as the last.  I just pulled up the concealing branch. 

The nests always seem to be sandwiched tightly between two branches, with the top branch making a low ceiling over the nest.  This makes the nest quite well hidden and difficult for most predators to approach.

Sometimes the birds will choose a location other than the juniper for their second nesting attempt.  Severe downdraughts from a powerful thunderstorm laid over a portion of this stand of Ashy Sunflowers.  The result was a tangle of horizontal stems close to the ground.

A couple weeks after the storm, I was trimming back some of the fallen plants to keep them from interfering with corn growing in a neighboring bed.  I stopped my work when I noticed a wad of grass seemingly stuffed between the stalks.  The grass should not have been there.

The grass I had seen was part of a Song Sparrow nest.  A couple of the stalks I had already cut had formed part of the roof over the nest, so the nest was more exposed than intended.  I bent a couple of fresh stalks over the nest and wove them in with the others in an attempt to repair the damage I had done.  Then I left the area alone for a few days and hoped that the sparrows would accept my alteration of their original design.

Apparently I was successful.  When next I checked, young birds were growing nicely.  If there was a problem, it was being caused by the wind blown plants attempting to return to a more upright position.  The shifting plant stalks had moved the nest about 30 degrees off level.  The nestlings seemed comfortable in their slanted home and were old enough to adjust their positions to match the new attitude.  Song Sparrow nestlings leave the nest about ten days after hatching, so these only had a few more days left in the nest anyhow.

One day I came out and heard young birds calling from the nearby field.  I checked the nest and it was empty. 

Although I could clearly hear the young birds calling for their meals, they stayed out of sight down in the grass.  The adult birds were seen busily searching for insects to deliver to their offspring.  It’s hard to tell how many sparrows have been produced from my vegetable garden.  I am assuming that it is the same male that comes back each year to this particular spot.  I once read of a male Song Sparrow that returned to the same nesting area 16 years in a row.  I hope my bird can match that longevity.