This past week as the heat continued despite blessedly cloudy late afternoons, I noticed two behaviors odd enough that I had to resort to the reference books to find out what was going on.
The first I'm sure most of you have already noticed, but I'm late to this party: Our local WB Nuthatch pair began raids on a fairly frantic level of the birdseed I throw on our deck (in my case, purely to establish the kitty-TV programming for the day-- and they also enjoy the mouse-watching channel).
The nuthatches were coming and going regularly and at first I thought maybe they were feeding chicks, but when I had time to observe closely, I could see that they took each seed to a favorite tree (Kentucky coffee with its nicely grooved bark), Japanese sophora, with its trunk cleavages, and plains cottonwood, also, groovy bark). Then they would march around on the branches until they found a fissure suitable for seed storage. Lots of noisy pounding, then a return trip to the deck. I had no idea they were such seed-eaters in winter, or that they dedicated their hunting in August to this degree.
The other odd behavior that made me consult the good ole CO Atlas, was that of a female Blue Grosbeak. On Aug. 20, no sooner, she was gathering nesting material among our wildflowers. I'm used to hearing the grosbeaks singing and chink-calling in late summer or early fall, but starting over with a brood? We speculated that the first nest had been blown down thanks to the high winds in these storm cells.
Talk about resilient nature...
Linda
Personal landcape: Now known as Boulder County (CO). We nest in shortgrass prairie whose caretakers for centuries were the Hinóno'éí (Arapaho) and Cheyenne Nations. Colorado's Front Range is also home to The Ute & many other Native peoples. Reconozco que vivo en el territorio de las naciones Hinóno'éí (Arapaho) y Cheyenne, según el 1851 Tratado de Fort Laramie; y que el estado de Colorado al esté de las Montañas Rocosas es territorio de Utes y muchos otros pueblos indígenas
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