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February 03, 2000 - Want Woody to visit? Serve suetBrebruary 3, 2000 The Suffolk Times • 5A Want Woody to visit Let's look at the woodpeckers that might visit our feeders this winter. Woodpeckers are generally found throughout the world except for Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Of all the 28 species of wood- peckers in North America only six Focus or seven are seen on our ON North Fork. Of NATURE all birds, the b Paul woodpecker Y family is proba- Stoutenburgh bly the best suit- ed to cope with the ice and snow and freezing temperatures of winter. The reason is their food is usually held in cold storage for them. Hidden behind the bark or in a crevice of a tree are sleeping insects, grubs, dormant eggs, hibernating beetles, etc. With this frozen dinner tucked away in every tree and limb, it's no wonder the woodpeckers fare so well through win- ter's bitter cold. And besides, nature has evolved some special features that help the woodpeckers get at those life - giving tidbits. They have short but strong legs equipped with extra - sharp, curved toe- nails that enable them to maneuver easily up and down any tree, limb or branch. Then to make their climbing more secure, special tail feathers with stiff 'ribs have evolved so the wood- peckers can actually sit on their tail feathers as they chip away into trees for grubs, etc. Then to give the wood- pecker the best tool of all, nature has added a specially developed tongue that is very, very long and equipped with tiny barbs at the tip. With this long -range spear it can reach deep intc an exposed tunnel and pull out a juicy grub or beetle. The flicker, our largest woodpecker, is often seen foraging on the ground. II has the longest tongue of all wood- peckers. With this especially long tongue and its sticky saliva on the tip, it can reach down into an anthill and pull out its favorite food — ants. Woodpeckers love suet. It can be purchased or, depending on how well et Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh The downy and hairy woodpeckers are lookalikes. The males are the ones with the red top notch. The downy Is the smaller of the two. Both, like all woodpeckers, love suet. Suet also will attract other birds, especial- ly during the cold winter months_ you know your butcher, given away free. Or you can buy ready -made suet cakes at most feed or food stores. No matter where you get it, it must be put in some sort of holder. This can be anything from a piece of wire mesh shaped as a holder, or simpler, just a mesh bag hung in a tree. If you are not a do- it- yourselfer, you can always pur- chase a manufactured suet holder. But by all means put up a suet feeder and attract not only woodpeckers, but chickadees, nuthatches, and yes, even the pesky starlings. Once you have your suet feeder up, who will be attract- ed to it? Probably the first will be the little "ladder back" downy woodpecker. This mot- tled black- and - white wood- pecker is bound to find your suet sooner or later. The downy is closely related to the hairy woodpecker, a bigger version of the little downy. In both cases, the male and female look alike except for the little red top notch of the males. Both are year -round residents and build their nests in cavities of trees they've hollowed out. Drumming up a mate Like most woodpeckers, they have elaborate mating rituals and it is usually in the early spring you can see them performing near their lady fair. Woodpeckers do not have a great repertoire of songs so they have devised a system of drumming on a suitable hollow limb or even your aluminum gutter in hopes of attracting a mate. This latter hammering can be quite annoying, particularly if it's repeated day after day about sunrise. Once a mate is found a nesting cavit, will be dug, and eggs are laid at the bot tom on bare wood chips. There is no building of the typical bird nest. All its energy goes into digging out the cavity and seeing there is no need for camou- flaging the eggs hidden way inside the deep cavity; they are plain white. As I've mentioned many times be- fore, woodpeckers are having a hard time finding suitable trees to nest in. There are just not enough dead trees left standing and then when one is found and the woodpecker has creates his new home, the bully starling often comes along and takes it over. Yet there's one good thing that comes from the woodpeckers building their cavity nests in trees and that is, when the woodpecker is finished rais- ing its young and abandons the nesting site, it often becomes the home of chickadees, nuthatches or other cavity nesters. Also remember on these cold nights these abandoned cavities also provide shelter for all sorts of birds. Without their protected sites, many a bird would freeze to death in the open Our newest arrival Probably the next most popular d esker to our feeder is the rela- tive newcomer to our area, the red - bellied woodpecker who, by the way, doesn't have much of a red belly. It's a big woodpecker about the size of a robin. It has a red cap and nape (the female has only the red nape.) Be careful here as we do have a completely red - headed woodpecker that I'll speak of later. I remember back in the '50s when I first heard this noisy red - bellied woodpeck- er. I'd never heard anything like it- before. "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." It was early spring when the trees were just bud- ding out. I traced the sound to a dead oak where this handsome, new -to -me wood- pecker was busy chipping out its future home. Every once in a while it would stop and give its loud "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." I ran back home and got my tape recorder and recorded this new call. Today the. red - bellied wood- pecker is a common visitor to most feeders. We often see it taking hickory nuts and wedg- ing them in crevices of trees for late use. It's quite some- thing to see as it flies by with a big hickory nut in its bill. How it gets into these hard - shelled nuts is beyond me. Our largest woodpecker is the com- mon flicker that occasionally visits our feeder. As mentioned earlier, we often see it on the ground "anting" with its specially equipped dagger tongue. This woodpecker generally migrates each fall. The best place to see them head- ing south is at Smith Point over on Fire Island. We've seen 50 to 100 of them moving along the barrier beach when we've been over there on hawk watches. Yet each year we see a few flickers stay with us and rough it through the winter. Right now we have one visiting our suet feeder. Evidently it doesn't like the cold for all its feath- ers are fluffed out as it feeds. The downy, hairy and red - bellied woodpeckers and flicker are the four woodpeckers we generally see here during the winter. There's one excep- tion and that's the sapsucker that dur- ing the warmer months has the curi- ous habit of drilling lines of holes in trees to tap the sap that flows from them. They are usually seen only dur- ing migration. Another rarity is the red - headed woodpecker that I men- tioned earlier. It's a really flashy -look- ing woodpecker with a completely red head down to its shoulders. You'll see this one when it flies, for it flashes black and white in its wings. Seeing it is a real find for Long Island. So keep the suet feeder full, espe- cially on cold winter days, and you'll be surprised how many different kind of birds will visit you, including the tree - climbers — the woodpeckers. Fetymary 3,_2000--- .Tfc�,,Suffdlk"pi'mes • 5A Want Woody to vi*si*t9 Let's look at the woodpeckers that might visit our feeders this winter. Woodpeckers are generally found throughout the world except for Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Of all the 28 species of wood- peckers in North America only six Focus or seven are seen on our ON North Fork. Of NATURE all birds, the b Paul woodpecker Y family is proba- Stoutenburgh bly the best suit- ed to cope with the ice and snow and freezing temperatures of winter. The reason is their food is usually held in cold storage for them. Hidden behind the bark or in a crevice of a tree are sleeping insects, grubs, dormant eggs, hibernating beetles, etc. With this frozen dinner tucked away in every tree and limb, it's no wonder the woodpeckers fare so well through win- ter's bitter cold. And besides, nature has evolved some special features that help the woodpeckers get at those life - giving tidbits. They have short but strong legs equipped with extra - sharp, curved toe- nails that enable them to maneuver easily up and down any tree, limb or branch. Then to make their climbing more secure, special tail feathers with stiff 'ribs have evolved so the wood- peckers can actually sit on their tail feathers as they chip away into trees for grubs, etc. Then to give the wood- pecker the best tool of all, nature has added a specially developed tongue that is very, very long and equipped with tiny barbs at the tip. With this long -range spear it can reach deep intc an exposed tunnel and pull out a juicy grub or beetle. The flicker, our largest woodpecker, is often seen foraging on the ground. II has the longest tongue of all wood- peckers. With this especially long tongue and its sticky saliva on the tip, it can reach down into an anthill and pull out its favorite food — ants. Woodpeckers love suet. It can be purchased or, depending on how well et Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh The downy and hairy woodpeckers are lookalikes. The males are the ones with the red top notch. The downy Is the smaller of the two. Both, like all woodpeckers, love suet. Suet also will attract other birds, especial- ly during the cold winter months_ you know your butcher, given away free. Or you can buy ready -made suet cakes at most feed or food stores. No matter where you get it, it must be put in some sort of holder. This can be anything from a piece of wire mesh shaped as a holder, or simpler, just a mesh bag hung in a tree. If you are not a do- it- yourselfer, you can always pur- chase a manufactured suet holder. But by all means put up a suet feeder and attract not only woodpeckers, but chickadees, nuthatches, and yes, even the pesky starlings. Once you have your suet feeder up, who will be attract- ed to it? Probably the first will be the little "ladder back" downy woodpecker. This mot- tled black- and - white wood- pecker is bound to find your suet sooner or later. The downy is closely related to the hairy woodpecker, a bigger version of the little downy. In both cases, the male and female look alike except for the little red top notch of the males. Both are year -round residents and build their nests in cavities of trees they've hollowed out. Drumming up a mate Like most woodpeckers, they have elaborate mating rituals and it is usually in the early spring you can see them performing near their lady fair. Woodpeckers do not have a great repertoire of songs so they have devised a system of drumming on a suitable hollow limb or even your aluminum gutter in hopes of attracting a mate. This latter hammering can be quite annoying, particularly if it's repeated day after day about sunrise. Once a mate is found a nesting cavit, will be dug, and eggs are laid at the bot tom on bare wood chips. There is no building of the typical bird nest. All its energy goes into digging out the cavity and seeing there is no need for camou- flaging the eggs hidden way inside the deep cavity; they are plain white. As I've mentioned many times be- fore, woodpeckers are having a hard time finding suitable trees to nest in. There are just not enough dead trees left standing and then when one is found and the woodpecker has creates his new home, the bully starling often comes along and takes it over. Yet there's one good thing that comes from the woodpeckers building their cavity nests in trees and that is, when the woodpecker is finished rais- ing its young and abandons the nesting site, it often becomes the home of chickadees, nuthatches or other cavity nesters. Also remember on these cold nights these abandoned cavities also provide shelter for all sorts of birds. Without their protected sites, many a bird would freeze to death in the open Our newest arrival Probably the next most popular d esker to our feeder is the rela- tive newcomer to our area, the red - bellied woodpecker who, by the way, doesn't have much of a red belly. It's a big woodpecker about the size of a robin. It has a red cap and nape (the female has only the red nape.) Be careful here as we do have a completely red - headed woodpecker that I'll speak of later. I remember back in the '50s when I first heard this noisy red - bellied woodpeck- er. I'd never heard anything like it- before. "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." It was early spring when the trees were just bud- ding out. I traced the sound to a dead oak where this handsome, new -to -me wood- pecker was busy chipping out its future home. Every once in a while it would stop and give its loud "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." I ran back home and got my tape recorder and recorded this new call. Today the. red - bellied wood- pecker is a common visitor to most feeders. We often see it taking hickory nuts and wedg- ing them in crevices of trees for late use. It's quite some- thing to see as it flies by with a big hickory nut in its bill. How it gets into these hard - shelled nuts is beyond me. Our largest woodpecker is the com- mon flicker that occasionally visits our feeder. As mentioned earlier, we often see it on the ground "anting" with its specially equipped dagger tongue. This woodpecker generally migrates each fall. The best place to see them head- ing south is at Smith Point over on Fire Island. We've seen 50 to 100 of them moving along the barrier beach when we've been over there on hawk watches. Yet each year we see a few flickers stay with us and rough it through the winter. Right now we have one visiting our suet feeder. Evidently it doesn't like the cold for all its feath- ers are fluffed out as it feeds. The downy, hairy and red - bellied woodpeckers and flicker are the four woodpeckers we generally see here during the winter. There's one excep- tion and that's the sapsucker that dur- ing the warmer months has the curi- ous habit of drilling lines of holes in trees to tap the sap that flows from them. They are usually seen only dur- ing migration. Another rarity is the red - headed woodpecker that I men- tioned earlier. It's a really flashy -look- ing woodpecker with a completely red head down to its shoulders. You'll see this one when it flies, for it flashes black and white in its wings. Seeing it is a real find for Long Island. So keep the suet feeder full, espe- cially on cold winter days, and you'll be surprised how many different kind of birds will visit you, including the tree - climbers — the woodpeckers. Fetymary 3,_2000--- .Tfc�,,Suffdlk"pi'mes • 5A Want Woody to vi*si*t9 Let's look at the woodpeckers that might visit our feeders this winter. Woodpeckers are generally found throughout the world except for Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Of all the 28 species of wood- peckers in North America only six Focus or seven are seen on our ON North Fork. Of NATURE all birds, the b Paul woodpecker Y family is proba- Stoutenburgh bly the best suit- ed to cope with the ice and snow and freezing temperatures of winter. The reason is their food is usually held in cold storage for them. Hidden behind the bark or in a crevice of a tree are sleeping insects, grubs, dormant eggs, hibernating beetles, etc. With this frozen dinner tucked away in every tree and limb, it's no wonder the woodpeckers fare so well through win- ter's bitter cold. And besides, nature has evolved some special features that help the woodpeckers get at those life - giving tidbits. They have short but strong legs equipped with extra - sharp, curved toe- nails that enable them to maneuver easily up and down any tree, limb or branch. Then to make their climbing more secure, special tail feathers with stiff 'ribs have evolved so the wood- peckers can actually sit on their tail feathers as they chip away into trees for grubs, etc. Then to give the wood- pecker the best tool of all, nature has added a specially developed tongue that is very, very long and equipped with tiny barbs at the tip. With this long -range spear it can reach deep intc an exposed tunnel and pull out a juicy grub or beetle. The flicker, our largest woodpecker, is often seen foraging on the ground. II has the longest tongue of all wood- peckers. With this especially long tongue and its sticky saliva on the tip, it can reach down into an anthill and pull out its favorite food — ants. Woodpeckers love suet. It can be purchased or, depending on how well et Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh The downy and hairy woodpeckers are lookalikes. The males are the ones with the red top notch. The downy Is the smaller of the two. Both, like all woodpeckers, love suet. Suet also will attract other birds, especial- ly during the cold winter months_ you know your butcher, given away free. Or you can buy ready -made suet cakes at most feed or food stores. No matter where you get it, it must be put in some sort of holder. This can be anything from a piece of wire mesh shaped as a holder, or simpler, just a mesh bag hung in a tree. If you are not a do- it- yourselfer, you can always pur- chase a manufactured suet holder. But by all means put up a suet feeder and attract not only woodpeckers, but chickadees, nuthatches, and yes, even the pesky starlings. Once you have your suet feeder up, who will be attract- ed to it? Probably the first will be the little "ladder back" downy woodpecker. This mot- tled black- and - white wood- pecker is bound to find your suet sooner or later. The downy is closely related to the hairy woodpecker, a bigger version of the little downy. In both cases, the male and female look alike except for the little red top notch of the males. Both are year -round residents and build their nests in cavities of trees they've hollowed out. Drumming up a mate Like most woodpeckers, they have elaborate mating rituals and it is usually in the early spring you can see them performing near their lady fair. Woodpeckers do not have a great repertoire of songs so they have devised a system of drumming on a suitable hollow limb or even your aluminum gutter in hopes of attracting a mate. This latter hammering can be quite annoying, particularly if it's repeated day after day about sunrise. Once a mate is found a nesting cavit, will be dug, and eggs are laid at the bot tom on bare wood chips. There is no building of the typical bird nest. All its energy goes into digging out the cavity and seeing there is no need for camou- flaging the eggs hidden way inside the deep cavity; they are plain white. As I've mentioned many times be- fore, woodpeckers are having a hard time finding suitable trees to nest in. There are just not enough dead trees left standing and then when one is found and the woodpecker has creates his new home, the bully starling often comes along and takes it over. Yet there's one good thing that comes from the woodpeckers building their cavity nests in trees and that is, when the woodpecker is finished rais- ing its young and abandons the nesting site, it often becomes the home of chickadees, nuthatches or other cavity nesters. Also remember on these cold nights these abandoned cavities also provide shelter for all sorts of birds. Without their protected sites, many a bird would freeze to death in the open Our newest arrival Probably the next most popular d esker to our feeder is the rela- tive newcomer to our area, the red - bellied woodpecker who, by the way, doesn't have much of a red belly. It's a big woodpecker about the size of a robin. It has a red cap and nape (the female has only the red nape.) Be careful here as we do have a completely red - headed woodpecker that I'll speak of later. I remember back in the '50s when I first heard this noisy red - bellied woodpeck- er. I'd never heard anything like it- before. "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." It was early spring when the trees were just bud- ding out. I traced the sound to a dead oak where this handsome, new -to -me wood- pecker was busy chipping out its future home. Every once in a while it would stop and give its loud "Kwirr- kwirr- kwirr." I ran back home and got my tape recorder and recorded this new call. Today the. red - bellied wood- pecker is a common visitor to most feeders. We often see it taking hickory nuts and wedg- ing them in crevices of trees for late use. It's quite some- thing to see as it flies by with a big hickory nut in its bill. How it gets into these hard - shelled nuts is beyond me. Our largest woodpecker is the com- mon flicker that occasionally visits our feeder. As mentioned earlier, we often see it on the ground "anting" with its specially equipped dagger tongue. This woodpecker generally migrates each fall. The best place to see them head- ing south is at Smith Point over on Fire Island. We've seen 50 to 100 of them moving along the barrier beach when we've been over there on hawk watches. Yet each year we see a few flickers stay with us and rough it through the winter. Right now we have one visiting our suet feeder. Evidently it doesn't like the cold for all its feath- ers are fluffed out as it feeds. The downy, hairy and red - bellied woodpeckers and flicker are the four woodpeckers we generally see here during the winter. There's one excep- tion and that's the sapsucker that dur- ing the warmer months has the curi- ous habit of drilling lines of holes in trees to tap the sap that flows from them. They are usually seen only dur- ing migration. Another rarity is the red - headed woodpecker that I men- tioned earlier. It's a really flashy -look- ing woodpecker with a completely red head down to its shoulders. You'll see this one when it flies, for it flashes black and white in its wings. Seeing it is a real find for Long Island. So keep the suet feeder full, espe- cially on cold winter days, and you'll be surprised how many different kind of birds will visit you, including the tree - climbers — the woodpeckers.