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Sunday with Karen Sue:
Since mid-April we've had the songs of wood thrushes coming from the woods behind our home, but now they have hushed. Many have already started their migration south to spend their winter in Central American countries including Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.
Until next April, all we can do is reminisce.
For more nature chat go to: nature lovers.
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Showing posts with label Donald Kroodsma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald Kroodsma. Show all posts
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
who cooks?
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Sunday with Karen Sue:
We recently went searching for barred owls at the nature center. Our outing rekindled Karen Sue's interest in their calls. The Donald Kroodsma book she mentions is remarkable; we sell it in the Ijams gift shop.
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Sunday with Karen Sue:
We recently went searching for barred owls at the nature center. Our outing rekindled Karen Sue's interest in their calls. The Donald Kroodsma book she mentions is remarkable; we sell it in the Ijams gift shop.
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
what's the buzz?
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The first French settlers in Louisiana called it “Pique-bois jaune.” (I think that means something like lance-wooden yellow. N'est-ce pas?)
And early American naturalists simply called it “Golden-winged.”
Today we know it as the Northern flicker, the one woodpecker in the east with a golden hue. Black, white and red is the norm.
A pair of flickers raised a family in a tree near my home on Chapman Ridge this past spring. The nest hole was 20 to 30 feet above the ground. I saw them come and go occasionally but didn’t get to spend much time watching them. The tree was basically branchless, so sneaking a peak would have been difficult.
According to Donald Kroodsma author of “The Singing Life of Birds,” a clutch of flicker nestlings make a buzzing noise that sounds like a swarm of bees to scare away would-be predators. Bees. That would work. A marauding raccoon reaching inside the nest cavity to plunder a chick would probably reexamine his appetite, maybe opt for a green-leafy salad instead or perhaps a bacon and cheese quiche.
Growing up in the mountains, my dad was a beekeeper so I know the buzzing sound. It's pretty frightening, even if you are wearing an apiculturist's veil.
–Thanks, Karen Sue.
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The first French settlers in Louisiana called it “Pique-bois jaune.” (I think that means something like lance-wooden yellow. N'est-ce pas?)
And early American naturalists simply called it “Golden-winged.”
Today we know it as the Northern flicker, the one woodpecker in the east with a golden hue. Black, white and red is the norm.
A pair of flickers raised a family in a tree near my home on Chapman Ridge this past spring. The nest hole was 20 to 30 feet above the ground. I saw them come and go occasionally but didn’t get to spend much time watching them. The tree was basically branchless, so sneaking a peak would have been difficult.
According to Donald Kroodsma author of “The Singing Life of Birds,” a clutch of flicker nestlings make a buzzing noise that sounds like a swarm of bees to scare away would-be predators. Bees. That would work. A marauding raccoon reaching inside the nest cavity to plunder a chick would probably reexamine his appetite, maybe opt for a green-leafy salad instead or perhaps a bacon and cheese quiche.
Growing up in the mountains, my dad was a beekeeper so I know the buzzing sound. It's pretty frightening, even if you are wearing an apiculturist's veil.
–Thanks, Karen Sue.
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