Red-breasted Nuthatch Collecting Seeds

Sitting in the shade of a ponderosa pine listening to the river flow, I heard the faint murmurings of the red-breasted nuthatch. The pine cones are beginning to open in the warm, late-summer sun and the nuthatch is on the scene to start collecting seeds for the winter. After retrieving a seed, it flew over and stashed it in the furrowed, mossy bark of a bigleaf maple. It merrily went about filling its larder for most of the morning.

Occasionally, it would take a break and forage for food - pine seeds, insects, spiders and other arthropods. All About Birds by Cornell Lab summed up their foraging behavior nicely: “Red-breasted Nuthatches move quickly over trunks and branches probing for food in crevices and under flakes of bark. They creep up, down, and sideways without regard for which way is up, and they don’t lean against their tail the way woodpeckers do. Flight is short and bouncy.” I will add that you will often see them facing downward, pausing to tilt their head upward to survey their surroundings.

Listen for the sound like a small tin horn as the red-breasted nuthatch toots and squeaks on its joyfully spirited way through the landscape.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Resources:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/lifehistory

Wood-Pewee Fledged

I saw two of the three wood-pewee fledglings nearby along the river in a willow shrub. The parents were dashing by and feeding them in what seemed like a fraction of a second. This fledgling sat quietly on this small branch and patiently waited. I watched it for about a half an hour, and I never heard one peep out of it. Usually fledglings will vocalize with a begging call to be fed, but it can also get the attention of predators. Perhaps this little fledgling has already had a close call and has decided to sit and wait silently.

Last Nest of the Summer?

The Western Wood-Pewee has been, in my experience, the last bird nesting of the season out at the arboretum. That said, there was a robin’s nest nearby where the fledglings just left the nest within the last week. The baby pewees look as if they are going leave the nest any day now. They are fluttering their wings, preening their feathers regularly and perching on the side of the nest. There are three in the nest which seems crowded and hard to believe when you look at the size of the nest.

The parents stay close by to the nest. They could easily be back at the nest at a moments notice if a predator, such as a Steller’s jay, gets too close. The parents perch on small, exposed tree branches as they watch for insects flying by. They will swoop out in a small loop to catch an insect, and they will often return back to the same spot as if an invisible rubber band snapped them back.

The babies have insatiable appetites, and the parents are returning every couple of minutes to stuff food in their bright yellow bills. I can hear the babies almost constantly calling out from the nest to be fed.

I am sure the parent pewees welcome the closing of the day to get some well deserved rest.

Eurasian Collared-Dove

There is often a pair of these doves around the entrance to the arboretum. They have a black crescent around the nape of their neck that is prominently visible against their light, chalky-gray bodies. When they are perched or walking around on the ground, you can see that their wing tips are slightly darker than the rest of the wing.

They mainly forage along the ground for seeds, and they will also eat berries and insects.

This bird was accidentally introduced into the Bahamas in 1974 and by the 1980’s they had made their way over to Florida. Since then they have spread across the United States, except the Northeast where only a few strays have been recorded. In reading about them, I didn’t find anything reporting negative impacts on the populations of native birds.

Cool fact from All About Birds:
”The Eurasian Collared-Dove’s species name, decaocto, comes from Greek mythology. Decaocto was a servant girl transformed into a dove by the gods to escape her unhappy treatment; the dove’s mournful cry recalls her former life.”

Green Heron

Green herons are solitary birds and quite secretive. If I sit quietly in the morning along the river out at Mt. Pisgah, I might be fortunate enough to see one. Their coloration and pattern easily conceal them as they hunt in the shallow waters along the vegetation of the river’s edge. They can be seen standing motionless or slowly walking along the bank as they look for food. When catching prey, they will quickly lunge forward darting their head into the water with their stout, pointy bill.

Their diet mostly consists of eating small fish. Also on the menu are insects, spiders, crustaceans, snails, amphibians, reptiles, and rodents.

Amazingly, green herons will sometimes drop a feather or small twig on surface of water as bait to lure fish. I would love to see them do this.

I was lucky to get a photo of this one as it investigated the shallow water of this bar of cobblestones.

Cow Parsnip Cache

Surprisingly, so far only once this year have I observed downy woodpeckers extracting the larvae of the carrot seed moth out of the hollow stems of cow parsnip. In years past, I saw the woodpeckers on the cow parsnip all the time, usually feeding juveniles.

The evidence of the presence of the moths is the seed heads have been eaten and there are small holes bored into the stems of the plant. I opened a few stems at these holes, and I found the larvae which has small black spots on it. It looks like the caterpillars are also eating the plant on the inside of the stem. I also found little, brown cocoons which I am guessing are also the same moth.

It is amazing to see the transformation of this plant. It grows so tall developing huge leaves in the spring and early summer. Its umbrellas of white flowers are so prominent on the landscape. Now the plant is brown with shriveled leaves. Many of the plants have fallen over or broken in half leaving only the stalks standing.

Hairy Woodpeckers & Oak Galls

I watched two hairy woodpeckers, a female and a juvenile male, opening oak stem galls and eating the larvae inside. While the juvenile was getting the hang of extracting the larvae, the female was periodically feeding him. It didn’t take the female long to open one and find the larvae inside. The center of the gall had a woody core that housed several larvae in different chambers. It was fun watching them open the galls with ease. Debris was noticeably accumulating on the ground as they enthusiastically unpacked the spongy insides to get at the prize.

Different Birds Feeding Fledgling

For about a week, I have been watching a spotted towhee and a black-throated gray warbler feed this fledgling. From looking at photographs online, I think this fledgling is a brown-headed cowbird.

Cowbirds don’t build nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds which will feed and nurture the cowbird when it hatches. A common host of the cowbird is the spotted towhee. Cowbirds don’t have brilliant colors or patterns, but they are a fascinating bird. Below, I included a link to a small, interesting article about them.

So maybe the towhee is the foster parent of the cowbird and somehow this warbler got its wires crossed and is helping out. All About Birds had this to say about it: “…bird parents have an intense instinct to nurture young at the time their own young are dependent. Sometimes if a bird loses its own young, it ends up feeding another chick who is begging.”

So, I’ll just keep watching and see what happens. So far I have been able to find this little fledgling each day. That said, it is getting bigger and more mobile — it flew around the creek trail quite a bit today, but it is more or less staying in the same general area. If you want to go check it out, go up the creek trail where the picnic tables are. Today it was hanging out near the first bench you come to on the right that is next to the creek. Just listen for the twittering sounds of a begging bird.

Today, I saw a juvenile towhee nearby being fed, but I’m not sure if it is the same parent towhee that it is feeding this mystery fledgling. Also today, about 50 yards away I saw a female cowbird being chased away from the nest of a western wood-pewee.

Check out these small, interesting articles:

https://www.audubon.org/news/how-does-cowbird-learn-be-cowbird

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/i-saw-a-little-bird-feeding-a-much-larger-bird-is-it-rare-to-see-two-different-species-feeding-each-other/

Spotted Sandpiper

Along the Willamette River out at Mt. Pisgah, there are areas where stones have been deposited and weathered smooth. These regions, known as bars, become more exposed as the water recedes during the dry months of summer. These bars are interspersed with small thickets of willow and provide a great environment for birds to bathe, drink water, forage for food, and nest.

Over the past few years, including this one, I have seen spotted sandpipers raising a family out at Mt. Pisgah. As I approach the river, I usually hear them before I see them. Peterson describes their vocalization as a “clear peet or peet-weet! or peet-weet-weet-weet-weet.”

When you see them you’ll notice that they have a curious behavior of bobbing their tails up and down. It is a fluid, teetering movement that even the new fledglings do. They usually fly low over the water. They have quick, fluttering wing beats interspersed with short glides.

During breeding, the breast of this elegant, little bird becomes adorned with spots. Its nonbreeding and juvenile plumage doesn’t have spots.

I read this about their behavior on the website All About Birds by The Cornell Lab: “Spotted Sandpipers were one of the first bird species described in which the roles of the males and females are reversed. Males are usually smaller, less aggressive, and tend the nest and young. Meanwhile, the larger females fight for territories and may be polyandrous, meaning they mate with more than one male.”

This year I see 3 fledglings. They leave the nest soon after hatching, and they are an adorable ball of downy feathers.

I love this bird. Check them out.

Bullock's Orioles Feeding Babies

You can hear the begging of little birds as the Bullock’s orioles are feeding their babies. The sound can be heard from quite far, and it seems like it would give away their location. I have certainly found a many nests this way. Both the male and the female are making trips to the nest with food every few minutes. It must be exhausting. They also peer down into the nest to look for a fecal sack. If they find one, they will remove it and deposit it as they fly away from the nest.

They weave a gourd-shaped nest that is usually located out at the end of a tree branch about 10 to 25 feet above the ground. It is made of natural fibers like grass and lichen. The interior part of the nest is usually lined with feathers or the cottony down of willow and cottonwood seeds. Unfortunately, they are also good at finding man-made fibers to use for nesting material like the white ribbon in this nest. I have seen Bullock’s oriole nests in which it looked like half the nest was fishing line. Thus, you will usually find their nests located in habitats near water like along the Willamette river out at Mt. Pisgah.

Robin Feeding Babies

The robins are busy collecting insects, caterpillars and worms. They are up at the break of day to began foraging, and they will work tirelessly until dusk to feed their babies. Both parents feed them and the nestling phase usually lasts around two weeks. It seems hard to believe that they grow up that fast and are ready to leave the nest. It won’t be long before we will see young robins with their speckled breasts chasing their parents and begging for food. Actually I saw a robin fledge yesterday evening. I’m getting ready to head out and see what’s happening this morning. See you out there!

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Western Screech Owl

I found this western screech owl the other evening thanks to the help of a friend. I saw a robin on the path foraging on all of the small, green caterpillars that have been repelling from the trees this week. As it was darting back and forth across the trail, it was giving its vocalization that signals possible danger or disturbance. It makes a series of calls that sound like tuk tuk tuk tuk. After a couple of minutes it flew up to a tree branch and made a few more alarm calls and flew away. As I stood there surveying the landscape for about 5 minutes the robin returned. Again, it began to forage, but still vocalizing its agitation. I began to wonder if the demands of parenting had started to frazzle my friend and/or maybe she wanted me to move on. Once again, she flew up to a tree branch nearby, alarmed and flew off down the path. A few minutes later as I looked around I was gifted the beauty of seeing this magnificent little creature sitting at the entrance of a tree cavity. Its coloration and feather pattern resemble the bark of trees which allows it to blend in excellently with its surroundings.

Western Screech-Owls are carnivores that mostly eat small mammals. Their diet also includes birds, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. They are nocturnal and usually leave their roost to forage around sunset and return a little before sunrise.

Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii)

Click the link below to All About Birds to hear their vocalizations:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/sounds

Black-headed Grosbeak

The song of the black-headed grosbeaks started flowing through the air as they arrived on the scene in the last week or so. The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America describes their voice: “Song consists of rising and falling passages; resembles American Robin’s song, but more fluent and mellow. Call a flat ik or eek.”

Along with their robust song, you will also see them darting through the canopy as they began to establish their territory and find a mate.

As I was watching a pair fly around in an Oregon ash, I witnessed their brief copulation. In most birds, the male and female have a cloaca. During mating the cloacal openings of both male and female birds swell and protrude slightly outside of their bodies. The male will usually get on top of the female. She will move her tail feathers to the side so they can rub their cloacas together. At that moment, the male will quickly transfer his sperm to the female to fertilize her egg.

Life is amazing!

Male Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)

Cedar Waxwing Courtship

I read the following excerpt yesterday about cedar waxwings on The Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website.

“During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift.”

This morning I watched the male pluck an Indian Plum berry and fly over to a nearby limb where the female joined him. They gently passed the berry back and forth four or five times before it was eaten. This is a tender, sweet way to form a bond and become a pair.

Cedar Waxwings

In an old copy of How to Know Birds by Roger Tory Peterson he describes cedar waxwings: “Dressed in tans and grays, the sleek Waxwings are the most ‘tailored’ birds. They are called Waxwings because of shiny red droplets that look like sealing wax, at the tips of the secondary wing-feathers. But you must be very close to the bird to see this feature. The best field marks are a pointed crest and a yellow band at the end of the tail.”

Cedar waxwings are social birds and they can be seen and heard foraging in flocks. I see them every afternoon along the river trail moving through the trees and their vocalizations are a high, thin lisp or zeee that is slightly trilled. They are gleaning insects and caterpillars off of the foliage. You can also see them catching insects on the wing along the river too. They will perch on a branch and swoop out over the river like a flycatcher. Or they will weave back and forth zig-zagging over the water as they catch insects.

Cedar waxwings feed mainly on fruits throughout the year. Their name is derived from cedar berries they consume in winter. Soon the Indian plum berries will begin to ripen, and they will start gobbling them down well before I think they are ready to eat.

In What It’s Like To Be A Bird, David Allen Sibley writes: “The diet of waxwings is mainly fruit for much of the year, and they have several adaptations related to this. They have a relatively small bill, but it opens into an unusually wide mouth, allowing them to swallow large fruit whole. Their tongue has inward-facing barbs to help pull fruit into their throat.”

Happy Birdwatching!

Golden-crowned Sparrows

Small flocks of golden-crowned sparrows have been using the arboretum as their winter home. I see them at the entrance, the wildflower garden, along the quarry road and the road out to the south meadow. They are never too far from the cover of a small thicket of shrubs that they can use for safety from predators. That said, they seem to be a friendly bird that will allow you to get close to them if you are quiet and move slowly.

This spring I noticed them eating lots of leaves of new plant shoots. I didn’t realize birds would include so much plant vegetation in their diet. I also see them foraging on new tender, grass seeds.

They are often palling around in a mixed flock with white-crowned sparrows. I captured a photo of them together that you can see below.

The golden-crowned sparrow breeds in shrubby tundra habitats near the coast or in the mountains in Alaska and northwestern Canada. I imagine that they will be migrating soon. Good luck on your journey. See you in the fall.

Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)

Bushtits Building Nest

Over the past week or two, I have been watching a pair of bushtits building their nest. The process of building the nest can go on for a month or more. I have often thought that they abandoned a nest site because I hadn’t observed them there for days, and the nest hadn’t taken on much of a form. They take their time and build a sturdy nest. One winter I found a nest on the ground that had fallen during a storm. I tried to open it up to look at the nest inside and found it tricky to tear with my hands. I had to use my pocket knife.

The nest is an intricately woven nest of moss, lichen, spider webs, spider cocoons, etc. The completed nest is a well-camouflaged, enclosed sock that has a small hole on the side at the top. The nest is at the bottom of the sock.

Bushtits are social birds that pal around together in little flocks. I’ve counted up to around 40 in one. “Within these flocks, several pairs may nest simultaneously, and additional Bushtits beyond the mated pair often attend the nest and help raise the young. These helpers are usually adult males, a pattern that is rare in cooperatively nesting birds (Website: All About Birds - The Cornell Lab).”

White-breasted Nuthatches Nesting

A pair of white-breasted nuthatches have paired up and have selected a natural cavity in an Oregon ash. I read that females build the nest, but I watched both male and female collecting nesting material. So I guess he is allowed to bring in material, but she puts it together. I have observed them collecting tufts of moss and small pieces of bark to line the nest cavity. She will then build a small nest cup of fine grass, feathers, bark fibers, hair, etc. She will lay 5-9 eggs. The eggs are white to pinkish-white, speckled with reddish brown, gray, or purple. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find part of a discarded shell on the ground somewhere. The incubation period is around two weeks and the male will feed her while she is on the nest. Both parents will feed the young when they are born. The nesting period is around 26 days. Good luck and happy parenting.

Wood Ducks Look For Nest Cavity

On Sunday evening there were two pairs of wood ducks flying around through the trees looking for possible cavities for nesting. I could hear the flapping of their wings and calls as I approached. I stood back a little ways and watched them. They were flying up to holes in the trees and looking in to investigate. The ducks were notably adept at maneuvering among the branches and landing at the entrances of the cavities.

They usually chose natural cavities where a tree limb has broken off and a small hollow space has been created where the tree’s heartwood has rotted out. They will also use woodpecker cavities. I saw them investigating both types.

All seemed to be going well until one of the ravens nesting nearby suddenly swooped in, apparently trying to capture one of the wood ducks. The wood ducks successfully avoided the raven and to my surprise, stayed in the area.

Coincidentally, as the raven was watching the wood ducks, a hawk was watching the raven. The hawk flew in and narrowly missed taking out the raven. This sent the raven and its mate into frenzy of trying to chase off the hawk. For now, the ravens decided to leave the wood ducks alone and did not return to the scene. I decided to move on too. I wished the wood ducks a peaceful evening and good luck on their journey of a successful nesting season.

Here’s a link to Audubon to hear the wood duck’s calls:
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-duck

Violet-green Swallows Return

They have been in the sky circling around the vicinty of the White Oak Pavilion for the past week or so. Yesterday I watched them trying to claim and defend the boxes and other nesting cavities. They were chasing each other and making twittering sounds as they wove invisible, swooping tapestries through the air. Occasionally two would have a tussling embrace that would flutter to the ground where they would release each other. This all seemed pretty harmless as they worked it out between them who was going to nest where.

Their migration pattern according to the website All About Birds: “Medium to long-distance migrant. Most individuals migrate to Mexico and Central America during the nonbreeding season, heading as far south as Costa Rica. Some individuals spend winters in California’s Imperial Valley, the lower Colorado River Valley, and coastal California.”