Backyard Woodpeckers Back Again

Last year we had a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers nest in our ornamental crabapple tree just outside the dining room window. We were able to watch the male excavate the cavity, leaving a pile of sawdust on the ground below the tree. The entrance to the cavity is only about 3 feet above the ground and faces the house so we were able to listed to the youngsters as they grew and finally, just before they fledged, we were able to see them when they started to appear at the hole to be fed. This link will take you to all the posts and photos from last years attempt (just ignore the posts that show up in this search that don't have anything to do with Hairy Woodpeckers!)



Within the last week or so a pair of Hairy's have been casually inspecting the hole on an infrequent basis, but this evening I noticed the male spending quite a bit of time in the cavity, occasionally emerging to dump a load of sawdust on the ground. The female has been hovering around the area and occasionally she would come down to the cavity and check things out. According to the Birds of North America (Jackson et al, 2002) account there is no data on nest maintenance or re-use. Perhaps I will be able to add some information to fill in that gap.
Hopefully we will again have the pleasure to watch another brood of Hairy Woodpeckers grow up in our backyard.

Jackson, Jerome A., Henri R. Ouellet and Bette J. Jackson. 2002. Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online.

They Grow Up So Fast

Today was a bittersweet day. I came home from work and traded hello's with Laura as she headed into town with the boys for Benton's last t-ball game (if you ever want some great entertainment, watch a kids t-ball game!). I foraged in the fridge for a bit and sat down to watch the Hairy Woodpeckers before heading into the blind to get a few more photos before they are gone. As I sat down I noticed that the male woodpecker was foraging on the ground further out in the backyard. "that's interesting" I thought to myself as I prepared to watch him gather his next meal for the kids, "I haven't seen him forage there before". That's when I did a double take and noticed that it wasn't the male but one of the female woodpecker chicks, now fledgling. I went to grab the camera and realized it had just drove off in the van with my family. Due to work schedules, swimming lessons, a meeting for Laura, and daycare I wound up driving the van home from town and left my camera in it when Laura headed back for t-ball. Damn.

At least I still had my banding kit. I gathered up my bands and snagged the newly fledged bird against the backyard fence. It seems kind of a weird coincidence but the smell of the young woodpecker reminded me of the smell of a Giant Petrel, a sweet musty smell. All petrels I have handled have had an interesting smell to them and it was very similar to this young woodpecker.
I released the bird near the nest hole and she didn't even seem to recognize what it was from the outside and she headed right up the trunk past the nest hole. I retired to a chair near the back door and watched the family for a while. After watching for a while the young female launched out of the tree and flew rather strongly for such a new flyer, only to thunk against the side of the fence and attach herself like a tick to the boards. She was there for a long while but when I checked again about 15 minutes later she had moved somewhere else.

I think there were at least 3 young in the nest since one female was still left in the nest and there had been at least one male in there as well.

I watched the pair continue to feed the one last bird in the nest and it seemed that they were working on getting the last nestling out into the world. Even yesterday they would stick their head into the hole to feed the young. Today they would just give the chick a taste then move a bit down the trunk to get the youngster to move even farther out of the hole to get fed. I suspect that by late tomorrow morning I will not longer have the youngsters living exclusively in my backyard.

Here are a few photos from the last few days.

Backyard Birds

I have been spending a bit of time in my pop-up blind in the backyard. I have to confess it is much more comfortable than the 40 lb sunflower seed bag I used to use as a blind in Mom and Dad's backyard when I was much younger (and smaller). For those of you still small enough this is a very inexpensive blind - just cut a couple of eye holes..(Laura loves this story about me - makes her giggle every time she thinks of me with the seed sack over my head in the backyard).

One thing that is the same is the reaction of the birds to the appearance of not having a human that close. I really like being able to watch the birds foraging and bathing. I can hear the Common Grackles cracking sunflower seeds and the White-crowned Sparrows singing away right next to me. Here are a bunch of photos from my time in the blind. I am slowly figuring out where the birds are perching and where I need to place some perches to make the backgrounds work. One of the best things about this blind is that it came with shoot-through mesh velcroed to the windows for bowhunters. I can cut a hole in the mesh and place the lens through the mesh and the birds can't see me behind the mesh. Wish I knew that when I was trying to use it on the Greater Sage-Grouse lek. Next year




Lincoln's Sparrow


Orange-crowned Warbler


Red Crossbill


White-crowned Sparrow


Common Grackle


Eurasian Collared Dove


Hairy Woodpecker


House Finch

1940 LaFrance Fire Engine

The reason I missed the fledgling of the last Hairy Woodpecker from the nest in my yard was a fund raiser for the local volunteer fire department. We raised over $4000 in donations selling coffee and generously donated homemade caramel rolls, cinnamon rolls, and cereal marshmallow treats in the morning and burgers and hot dogs in the afternoon. This works out to a per capita donation of about $16.

The main reason for the fundraiser is to purchase newer equipment. This is most evident in the fire trucks we use. One of the two fire truck we have (two others are county vehicles we use mostly for grass fires) is a 1940 LaFrance Fire Engine. We still use it and it still works although the brakes are a bit temperamental. Here are some photos of this fine old fire engine.

Here is the LaFrance in front of the Fort Peck Theater. They both are about the same age. The theater was constructed to provide entertainment for the workers building Fort Peck Dam in the thirties and it has a number of old movie posters still on display in the lobby. It is currently the home of a summer theater company and each summer they have a number of plays here.

This sign is on the dash of the LaFrance. Obviously from a different time.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Yesterday I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. Although the rules are fairly lax in regards to what "backyard" means for the count, I decided to be traditional yesterday and count just the birds observed in my backyard. It wasn't too hard. About 12:30 in the afternoon a male Hairy Woodpecker stopped by the suet feeder for a snack. He was the first and last bird I observed in the yard all day.
Today I am going to expand the definition of "backyard".

All Gone

Yesterday when I was able to get back home after being gone all morning, the backyard was very quiet. The last Hairy Woodpecker fledgling had exited the nest and the air was devoid of calling adults and begging chicks. I still find myself glancing at the entrance to the cavity as I walk through our dining room to see who is hanging out the hole or what is being fed but there is just an empty hole in the side of the tree.