Subject: Red-breasted Sapsucker and other stuff
Date: Jan 18 09:13:50 2002
From: Lee Rentz - leerentz at ix.netcom.com


Yesterday when I stepped outside my house to take a few puffs on a
cheap cigar, I noticed a Red-breasted Sapsucker feeding on the trunk
of a Bigleaf Maple. I assessed the photo possibilities, quickly
abandoned my cigar, and assembled the long lens, camera, and tripod.

Then I quietly walked up to the tree, stopping about 15' away to
watch the bird as it fed. The 1/4" holes it had drilled were about
5' above the ground, in a maple perhaps a foot in diameter. Later I
counted 17 fresh holes, spaced an average of 3/4" apart, and spanning
a (relatively) straight line around the tree.

The sapsucker was just a bit nervous at my presence, but whenever I
spooked it with an unexpected move, it quickly went back to the line
of sap wells. It would feed for a couple of seconds at a hole, then
scootch over and feed at the next hole, and so on.

This went on for a half an hour in late afternoon, when I figured I
had enough pictures (the sapsucker had more patience than I and
continued feeding after I left). Interestingly, the sapsucker was
ingesting so much sap that it defecated a stream of white fluid about
every four minutes.

Two questions for you superbirders out there:

1. It struck me that when agitated, the sapsucker's red,
head-topping feathers would raise slightly--rather like those of a
Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Is this true, or was it a
nicotine/caffeine-caused hallucination?

2. Unrelated: I moved here years ago from the Midwest, where
Black-capped Chickadees make a whistling (and slightly mournful)
"feebee" call. I have this species in my yard, but I can't recall
hearing that song. Do I need a hearing aid or is this behavior
missing here?

I had a Western Screech-owl calling at 8:15 pm last night from the
alders and cedars near my house. The night before, I checked the
feeders in the middle of the night and saw a flying squirrel panic
and take a flying leap off the deck.

Lee Rentz
lee at leerentz.com
Shelton, WA