I was startled when this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew over my shoulder so close I could have touched him.
He perched on a limb overhanging the trail just ahead of me and had a look around. Whatever he was looking for wasn’t in the immediate vicinity and shortly he continued on his way.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are named for their behavior of drilling small holes in trees then drinking the sap that runs into the wells. They get most of their food that way but also feed on insects they find under tree bark.
I’ve seen them peck at bark, mostly on the rough-barked trees and was surprised to see this one bobbing into a tree cavity. He was just about disappearing from my view as he reached in.
I didn’t see what, if anything, the Sapsucker was finding, but he kept at it for longer than I watched.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers visually blend into the surface of the rough-barked trees. These two images were taken in different places over a month apart.
I heard the tat-tat-tat of pecking at the bark first, then watched for the flash of red to help me spot them. Sapsuckers tend to spiral around the tree looking for food, sometimes at a pretty fast pace leaving the photographer to guess where they will pop back around.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker didn’t give up with his Magnolia Seed Berry.
There must be a spot in this thick barked tree to lodge this berry!
Even when he found a spot he wasn’t satisfied, and this time he may have lost it for good.
The ground was covered with these Magnolia berries so he could easily try with another.
This is the third and final post in this series.
See the first post here: Red-bellied Woodpecker With Magnolia Seed Berry
See the second post here: Red-bellied Woodpecker Keeps Trying
The Red-bellied Woodpecker from Wednesday’s Magnolia Seed Berry post kept looking for a place to lodge his find in a dead tree branch above me.
He picked a pretty lichen covered perch but could not find a useful spot to put that berry.
A couple of times I thought he had lost it in a hollow place in the branch, but he eventually got it back.
After a few more unsuccessful tries he scanned for another spot.
What a find, now what do I do?
Looking almost like a cranberry, the berries that contain the Magnolia Tree seeds are pretty hard and this Red-bellied Woodpecker was trying to figure out how to get it open.
Several ideas he had for lodging it in the bark of this tree so he could peck at it did not pan out.
This dead tree is a favorite with a number of woodpeckers, including a Red-bellied Woodpecker pair that was making a nest that I photographed last month.
While I was checking in on that activity on a recent visit a Red-bellied Woodpecker was nearly camouflaged high in the tree along with what I think was a recently fledged family of Downy Woodpeckers. They were a long way up and I couldn’t get an angle for a good image but did catch this one in flight.
Not far from where I saw a Pileated Woodpecker wreaking havoc on the boardwalk to the swamp last week I heard the impressive tat-tat-tat again. This youngster was frozen in place in a nearby tree and clearly not the origin of the percussion.
He flew a little higher just as I spotted the adult again assaulting the underside of the boardwalk railing.
The adult flew up to the fledgling and started feeding him some regurgitated material.
The chick stuck to his spot and the adult flew off and returned several times, daintily offering the juvenile food.
The feeding process was very calm, especially compared to the egrets and herons I had just been watching.
Over and over this Red-bellied Woodpecker peeked out the hole then ducked back in.
Finally he came out and inspected a different hole in the same tree.
Back to hole number one.
Then the chips began to fly.
The light colored feathers on this woodpecker are much darker grey than others I have seen. I saw the pair at this same tree the week before and thought their color was different, but couldn’t be sure as the light was poor. Zoom in on the image below to see his face and body feathers.
I still get excited when I see a Pileated Woodpecker and to have one land on the boardwalk railing was a treat. They look pre-historic and check out those feet!
I’d guess he’d been to this spot before as he wasted no time dropping down over the edge.
He bobbed up and down, gave just a few pecks on the wood, and was eating something.
I have seen Carpenter Bees flying and hovering around this area for weeks. The substance the Pileated Woodpecker was eating wasn’t distinctive, but may have been bee eggs laid in the wood.
I forgot about looking over the edge after the woodpecker left for what would be a perfectly round hole made by the Carpenter Bee when a bright yellow bird zipped along in the other direction.
