Birds and Nature

Both the male as shown here and the female Acorn Woodpeckers were very industrious in making a number of trips to the scrub oak to pick acorns, flying them back and caching them in the larder tree. I watched them doing this for a little more than a half hour and each of them made about 10 trips a piece. SeEtta

The male Acorn Woodpecker in the top photo was pounding on an acorn with his bill. Maybe they remove the out layer prior to caching them for the winter? SeEtta

I got better photos of the female entering the nest hole with food while better ones of the male as it exited the nest hole as seen here. I did observe and photograph the male bringing what looked like an insect into the nest hole but the photo quality wasn't great. Here it is exiting with what is likely a fecal sac and flying off with it. SeEtta As I noted above, please note that I was a good 150 feet from the nest tree (and though I stayed in my car to reduce disturbance, the birds did appear to be aware of my presence and would turn towards me they heard the mechanical sounds of my taking a photo)--I have a camera set-up that is approx 900mm in equivalence and then I crop the photos for even close views. As much as they may be used to having people around I think it is responsible to photograph and view the birds at their nest hole from at least a hundred feet.