From: Tucker, Trileigh
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 1:13 PM
To: aceros at mindspring.com
Subject: RE: RE: [Tweeters] Brown Creepers in concealment posture, Lincoln Park

Eric,

The photos were taken in full sun, midmorning on a warm day; this tree and the rest of the clearing get tons of sun for most of the day unless it's cloudy. Does that help with diagnostics?

I've continued to try to find other images of Creepers in this posture. Just now I came across one like this on someone's Flickr site, and one of the commenters said that "they do this in the sun to get rid of some feather mites." On the other hand, Ehrlich (Birder's Handbook) says they adopt this behavior when pursued. I wonder whether I would have been the perceived "pursuer," or whether they were responding to a Cooper's Hawk; those are often found in this general area, although I wasn't aware of one at that time in spite of scanning for hawks. Or could they have been reacting to the Pacific-slope Flycatcher that was hunting around there? There were a few flycatcher-creeper interactions while I watched.

Cheers,
Trileigh

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Trileigh Tucker
Lincoln Park, West Seattle
naturalpresence.wordpress.com

________________________________________
From: Eric Kowalczyk [aceros at mindspring.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 4:54 PM
To: tweeters
Subject: FW: RE: [Tweeters] Brown Creepers in concealment posture, Lincoln Park

Great shots...really looks more like the bird is sun bathing than trying to conceal itself......especially since it is tilting its head and exposing it's white ventral neck (which would not make sense if the bird was trying to conceal itself). This is a common posture for many sunbathing birds....spread out wings, tilting of head.......Trileigh, when you took those photos....was it in a shaded part of Lincoln Park and perhaps only a few spots of sun came thru the canopy?


But then again, I could be wrong!

:O)


Eric Kowalczyk
Seattle


From: Rob Conway<mailto:robin_birder at hotmail.com>
To: tri at seattleu.edu<mailto:tri at seattleu.edu>;tweeters at u.washington.edu<mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: 7/28/2012 4:01:42 PM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Brown Creepers in concealment posture, Lincoln Park

Trileigh,

The creepers very likely have a nest near the point they have so unbelievably conceiled themselves. I have seen maybe a dozen or so Brown Creeper nests over the past 30 years and all but one of them was below the 5 ft. mark on the nest tree. It is amazing how a 4X4 inch piece of bark pulled only an inch off the tree and still attached becomes an ideal nesting space for these birds; not only that they usually have 2 exits - front and back - from the nest. For anyone who hasn't checked these out it is well worth it; the link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trileigh . The birds appear to be nothing more than tree bark with the wings cleverly used to and posed to look! like moss or lichen growing on the bark, or even a dripping patch of sap. Their camo is in the same class or better than Ptarmagin.

Thanks for sharing!

Rob

Rob Conway
SW Portland
45.46?N 122.68?W (Elev. 473ft)
robin_birder at hotmail.com<mailto:robin_birder at hotmail.com>




________________________________
From: TRI at seattleu.edu
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:51:00 -0700
Subject: [Tweeters] Brown Creepers in concealment posture, Lincoln Park

Hi Tweets,

I was in a clearing in Lincoln Park the other day, near the base of a Doug Fir, photographing a very cooperative Pacific-slope Flycatcher. I wasn?t surprised to see a couple of Brown Creepers fly to the bottom of the tree and start to work their way up it, since I knew they liked this particular tree. But I was surprised when one flew back to the bottom, not far from where I was very obviously standing, then flattened itself against the trunk and laid its head sideways. If I hadn?t watched this but had just come upon it, I would have thought it was dead (if I?d noticed it at all, it blended in so well). After a while, it got back up and worked its way up the tree. It did this a couple more times, then a second one came! and also flattened itself in what I learned later was a concealment behavior, so both birds at once were flattened against the bark, perhaps 18? apart. (Unfortunately, I only had my 300mm lens and couldn?t tiptoe back far enough to photograph both birds at once.)

Later a friend told me he?s seen what he thinks is a Creeper nest crack in that tree. Is that the most likely explanation for this behavior? I was so startled to see the birds basically fly toward me and then seem to try to hide, when they would have stayed a lot more hidden if they?d just kept to the side of the tree away from me.

Photos are at flickr.com/photos/trileigh.

Good birding to all,
Trileigh

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Trileigh Tucker
Lincoln Park, West Seattle
Naturalpresence.wordpress.com
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