Titmice and chickadees feeding at sap wells

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The Juniper Titmice in the previous two posts and the one below are located in trees in the dry gulch near Canon City where I have been following the Williamson's Sapsuckers (that are not feeding in the pines in the urban area of town). They fly in from the surrounding juniper woodlands and flit around in not only the siberian-type (non-native) elms in the gulch but in the tamarisk that are also in the gulch (which is obviously not dry all the time). The titmouse in the top pic has it's bill poked into a sap well.
Also feeding at the sap wells drilled by the sapsuckers in these elms are Mountain Chickadees including the one in the middle and bottom pics.
Note the whitish object in the mouth of the chickadee in the bottom pic--it looks like a grain of rice but I think it may be a insect larva, possibly a bark beetle larva or eggs?

I have also found what appear to be pretty fresh sap wells in some ponderosa pine trees a mile or so from the dry gulch area but have not found any sapsuckers feeding there so far. And I have found at least one additional siberian-type elm tree with fresh sap wells in a dry gulch about a mile away though lower not higher in elevation than the ponderosa pine--so will check these out and more to come. SeEtta

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