Kevin, Tweeters,

RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS are year round residents here in Twin Lakes and I
suspexcted breeding in my neighborhood this year. I did observe one
excavating a nesting hole right at the parking lot for Dumas Bay earlier
this year.
I do have at least one individual, which has drilled neat rows of sap holes
in one of my trees, two of my neighbors and more at the neighbors across the
street. I did see this bird this morning feeding from its wells. I have seen
both Anna's Hummingbird and Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, feeding on the insects of
these wells. Kind of amazing how these birds set up their own food supply
with a lot of hard work! I also had a second sapsucker in Twin Lakes this
morning tapp-tapping away.

Cheers and good birding!

Hasns Feddern
Twin Lakes/Federal Way. WA.

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 3:08 PM, Kevin Purcell <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>wrote:

> Beautiful morning so I wandered around my local patch (Volunteer Park,
> Seattle) not expecting to find much.
>
> I did find a male Pileated Woodpecker flying around the north end of the
> park, not being bothered by the crows by landing in tree tops already
> occupied with a couple of crows. He settled down on a (Yellow?) Pine snag
> north-east of the Women's toilets near the fence and started to dig a cavity
> just a couple of feet of the ground. He appeared to be feeding on items
> found in the snag. He flew off to the north-east over the cemetery.
>
> A few minutes later I heard a Pileated Woodpecker calling to the south and
> west of that location and found him in the trees to the west of the main
> road. Not sure if it was the same bird (looping around from the cemetary ...
> but I didn't see him) or a second bird. This male Pileated Woodpecker was
> hammering, chipping batk and moving around a few trees. Eventually flew off
> to the south-west.
>
> Nice extended views in both cases. And especially appropriate as I'm
> reading Tanner's monograph on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker at the moment.
>
> Following him around he lead me to another small woodpecker hitching up a
> deciduous tree trunk (being closel watched by a hovering Anna's Hummingbird
> too) that turned out to be a male Red-breasted Sapsucker. I was rather
> surprised as I associated seeing these with irruptions with cold weather.
> Not great views but clear enough to show a mostly red head and throat
> (didn't see the breast).
>
> It's curious that I saw a Pileated Woodpecker at the Fill last week. And
> someone else saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker there yesterday. Curious.
> --
> Kevin Purcell
> kevinpurcell at pobox.com
> twitter: at kevinpurcell
>
>
>
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