Sunday, July 25, 2010
On our latest trip to the local retail 800 lb gorilla to buy bird seed, Ann picked up several of the suet/seed/nut cakes that we hang out in the winter. I'd always resisted using them in the summer, thinking they'd get disgusting pretty quickly in the heat. What I hadn't counted on was them not last long enough... the suet feeder was quickly mobbed by mainly grackles, but also chickadees and a red-bellied woodpecker.
This afternoon two woodpeckers showed up and I was surprised to see the adult male taking suet and feeding it to the 2nd bird, which is turns out was a juvenile red-belly. They repeated the process for several minutes before finally flying off. I knew that was how woodpeckers feed their young when they're nestlings but I didn't realize they'd continue to do it when the youngster was almost as big as the adult and able to follow from tree to tree. Or maybe this was just a "Hey, kid, try this stuff, it's great!" moment... regardless, it was pretty darn cool to watch.
JMH
