foraging

I brought some hazelnuts out to the squirrels and put them by the post in the middle of the woodshed.

Crispin helped himself, and then nearly choked on his food.

“Yikes!” he mumbled through a hazelnut. His teeth chattered.

“Wh-wh-what’s Henry doing here?”

“I heard about all the free food,” Henry said.

“I’m comin’ up there to get me some of that, and you’d better be gone if you know what’s good for you.”

But Crispin had already stashed away most of the hazelnuts, and only a few sunflower seeds were left.

*****

Watch as Henry roots through the wood chips and dirt to try to find leftovers. Notice his fingers and the toes on the end of his long feet. But he’s a dainty eater when he does find a morsel.

Having eaten his fill of leftover sunflower seeds, he climbs a tree to look for a safe place to have a nap. Must check out the now-vacant birdhouse on his way up.

When he gets beyond the birdhouse, watch how he looks down and then decides to risk a little jump to the next branch for a new grip. He’s fussy about which branches to pull himself up on. One is rather skinny and dead, so he contemplates it only for a split second before moving on to a thicker branch.

And up at the top he found a very fat branch that provided a cozy platform for him to have a nap in the sunshine, out of reach of lower level dangers.

Red-shafted flickers, part of the woodpecker family, have long beaks that are great for probing for insects and grubs. They will also eat fruit and seeds. Whatever is on the menu, their beaks come in handy.

Here is a mother flicker teaching junior all about poking holes in trees to find something to eat. As always, mother bird is looking out for danger every few seconds. You can’t let your guard down with hawks and owls around.

They are not picky about which restaurant they dine at. If they think there might be something good in the siding of that house, why not see if there’s an appetizer in there?

They don’t mind picking at seeds when the bugs are hard to find. This suet block was not in the shape of a duck when I first put it out there. We must have an artistic bunch of birds visiting here.

In this short video clip, you can see that flickers don’t mind checking out the ground for bugs either. Here is where that beak comes in really handy. The dirt is just flying. And again, the flicker checks for danger at the slightest movement. Right near the end of the clip, do you see what got its attention as it flew by? I can’t tell if it’s a tiny bird or an insect, but the flicker was aware of it and on alert before going back to its excavating.