[birding] Acorn frenzy & more Lewis's Woodpeckers

[Joel Geier]

Hi Lisa & All,

There seems to be a good crop of acorns again this year! Not quite as
big as the incredible mast crop a couple of years ago (or was it last
year?), but Coffin Butte has quite a few.

I picked up a handful (14 acorns) thinking to augment our population of
seedling oaks, since our sheep managed to get to some of the ones that
we had going due to inadequate fencing. The acorns have been sitting on
my desk for a few days, and so far I've found 3 acorn grubs that bored
their way out and started crawling around my desk. So I guess that for
every few acorns that those scrub-jays store, one will turn out hollow
due to grubs. Or I wonder if they can detect the acorns with grubs?

Some other interesting news: A place in SW Marion County (not publicly
accessible) had an amazing 15 LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS today. There seems to
be a major invasion going on this fall.

Happy birding,
Joel


 On Thu, 2009-10-01 at 11:22 -0700, lisaaves at peak.org wrote:
> I have to smile whenever I see a Western Scrub-jay flying overhead these
> days; most of the time it seems that they're carrying an acorn treasure to
> bury somewhere, or they're purposefully heading off to find another one. 
> Jays with oaks in their breeding territories are having to tolerate the
> invasion of their neighbors on constant acorn-collection sorties.  It
> seems like the jays who travel to adjoining territories to find acorns
> usually carry them back to their home territories to bury.
> Mr. Pill at work seemed to molt later than most jays, so he still has a
> mangy-looking head.  His shabby plumage, odd sideways skipping gait, and
> his mean temper make him quite a spectacle these days as he fruitlessly
> tries to chase away the other jays in his territory, who are helping
> themselves to his acorns.  He also must cram two peanuts into his bill
> each time I feed him, no matter how long it takes to get both of them to
> fit.  Today I had an all time high of 8 jays getting peanuts from me, soon
> to return to gathering acorns from the nearby red oaks.  Only 1 crow
> showed up.  Maybe that many screaming, swooping, rascally jays are just
> too much, even for a crow!
> Peanut Queen and her mate at Starker Park also seem a little stressed
> about all the neighbor jays visiting their territory as they snap up
> acorns from the red oaks planted around the duck pond.
> At the herb garden at work, an Anna's Hummingbird was getting nectar from
> red zinnias.  I enjoyed it when she hovered a couple of feet in front of
> me and inspected me from various angles, giving her little "chip" calls,
> before zooming away.
> Lisa
> www.neighborhood-naturalist.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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