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BACKYARD SECRET – ROBINS FIND WORMS BY SOUND
If you have ever watched American robins hunt for worms on your lawn, you have probably wondered whether the worm hunters located juicy worms by sight or sound.
Well, researchers have cracked the mystery to this age-old mystery. The birds locate the worms by sound. Once they find a worm, they often tilt the head to direct their strike at the hidden meal.
BACKYARD SECRET – BUTTERFLIES ARE SOMETIMES SMALLER IN THE SPRING
Recently my wife and I were walking about our backyard on a recent March after noon we noticed that one of our native azaleas was in full bloom. When we stopped to admire the beautiful blossoms displayed by the large native azalea, an eastern tiger swallowtail flew in and began nectaring at the shrub’s stunning blooms. As we watched the butterfly feed, we both noticed that it was much smaller than the tigers we normally encounter. This begged the question, “Why is this individual so small?”
One possible reason for this is eastern tiger swallowtails overwinter as pupae in a chrysalis. If a butterfly emerges earlier than normal due to unseasonably warm weather, it may be smaller because it pupated before reaching its normal size.
BACKYARD SECRET – BLUE-GRAY GNATCATERS ARE NOT FEEDER BIRDS
Regardless how hard we try, we cannot entice all of the birds that visit our yards to dine at our bird feeders. One such bird is the blue-gray gnatcatcher.
This past week my wife spotted a blue-gray gnatcatcher feeding among the green leaves of a coral honeysuckle that grows beside our driveway. Today, while walking to the mailbox I spotted a blue-gray gnatcatcher in the same place. The bird did not flush until I was about 10 feet away.
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER
This provided with a great view of the bird’s clean blue-gray plumage that almost seemed to shine in the morning sunlight as it flew to the bare branches of a nearby tree. Once there, it did not remain motionless for long before it began flitting about in search in spiders and small insects.
Since these birds do not visit feeders, if you want to attract them to your yard, you must offer the feathered sprites native trees and shrubs where they will be able to forage on caterpillars, spider and tiny insects.
SAPSUCKERS AID HUMMINGBIRDS
Since spring has arrived, any day now ruby-throated hummingbirds will begin showing up in our backyards. When they return it is easy to believe that the sugar water we offer them in our feeders will address all of nutritional needs of these tireless migrants. Unfortunately, this is not the case. While our hummingbird food supplies the birds with much-needed energy, it does not contain the vitamins, and minerals that are important to their diet.
The nectar that furnishes them typically comes from nectar gleaned from flowering plants. The problem is many of the flowers that bloom at this time of the year are not excellent sources of nectar. Plants such as Daffodils, Bradford pears, even most ornamental azaleas produce little nectar. Fortunately, hummingbirds have another source of the sugar, minerals and vitamins they desperately need. This food is tree sap. A bird named the yellow-bellied sapsucker unwittingly supplies this “liquid gold.”
This woodpecker drills shallow holes in the trunks of trees and other plants. The sap wells become shallow reservoirs that collect tree sap. The yellow-bellied sapsucker uses its brush-tipped tongue to mop up the sap. To ensure that it has plenty of food, it chisels out lots of holes in concentric circles around a number of trees.
Other critters such as butterflies, squirrels, and birds like hummingbirds also avail themselves of this unusual food. In fact, the only Rivoli’s hummingbird I have ever seen was feeding at sapsucker holes in a tree growing in a backyard near Winder, Georgia.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds often follow yellow-bellied sapsuckers to these holes. However, whenever one of these special woodpeckers spots a hummingbird or other interloper feeding at its sapsucker holes, it promptly runs it off.
I should note that this source of food is so important to rubythroats; their spring migration follows closely behind that of the yellow-bellied sapsucker. This helps ensure that rubythroats will have readily available sources of food as they proceed on their own journey north.
I guess it would not be a stretch to call sapsucker holes Mother Nature’s Hummingbird Feeders.
BACKYARD SECRET – A WAY TO KEEP WATER OUT OF NEST BOXES
Here is a simple way to help keep rain out of nesting boxes. If a nestbox is properly built (with an overhanging roof), in most cases, rain is kept from entering the box. However, wind-blown rain is a different matter. While it is impossible to always keep this type of rain out of boxes, you can reduce the chance of this happening by simply erecting a box so that the opening to the nestbox faces away from the prevailing wind.
BACKYARD SECRET: DEALING WITH SQUIRRELS EATING SUET AT FEEDERS
If you are having a problem with gray squirrels eating more than their share of suet, here is something you might want to try. Typically, squirrels prefer eating suet laced with peanut butter and peanuts. If this is the case in your backyard, simply replace the peanut butter suet with plain suet. While birds will eat it, it seems that bushytails are not particularly fond of plain suet. While this solution might not work in all backyards, this simple, inexpensive approach to this problem just might work for you.
REASONS WHY GEORGIANS OFTEN SEE MORE DOWNY THAN HAIRY WOODPECKERS
If you are one of the Georgians that has wondered why you see far more downy than hairy woodpeckers in your yard, you are not alone. Let’s look at some of the reasons why this is the case.
To begin with, downy woodpeckers are far more abundant than hairy woodpeckers. Approximately 11 million downy woodpeckers live here. In comparison, only 8.7 million hairy woodpeckers are flying about the Peach State.
Which woodpecker that you see most often is also affected by the habitat in and around your home.
` Hairy woodpeckers prefer to live in forests composed of large, mature trees. Here they spend most of their time hunting for the larvae of wood boring insects. These insects comprise about one-third of their diet. The next most important item on their menu is amts.
In comparison, downy woodpeckers are most often found living in more open habitats where there is an abundance of smaller trees and weeds (e.g. goldenrod). In addition, they also often feed on seeds extracted from pinecones.
On the other hand, Downy woodpeckers prefer hunting for food in more open habitats dominated by young trees and herbaceous plants like as goldenrod.
SUET AND BIRD PUDDINGS ARE NOT THE ONLY SOURCES OF FAT EATEN BY BIRDS
The use of animal fat by birds dates back at least to the 1890s. For example, historians tell us that in 1898 Florence Merriam Bailey and others were feeding animal fat to birds. These bird early enthusiasts simply tacked raw suet to the trunks of trees. This practice continues to this day.
Several years ago, a good friend of mine conducted an experiment to try to determine whether birds prefer chunks of suet (fat found around the kidneys of cattle) to rendered suet.
It is easy for us to believe that birds only obtain animal fat from raw suet, rendered suet and bird puddings. Quite by accident several years ago, I found this is not the case.
At the time, I made my discovery I was working at a checking station on the Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area. I was one of the folks that examined each deer harvested. These animals were examined under an open deer weighing shelter. After the deer were examined, chunks of deer fat were often left behind.
One day during a deer hunt, I just happened to notice dark-eyed juncos were feeding on bits of deer fat had collected along the edge of the shelter along the edge of the shelter.
I suspect that birds of been eating the fat found on dead animals of millions
of years. Dark-eyed juncos are not the only birds that have been known to eat the fat of dead animals. The list of others that do the same are tufted titmice, wrens and woodpeckers.
