Birds and Nature

I think that adult male Williamson's Sapsuckers are just such striking birds with their jet black and white plumage accented by their yellow bellies and just a touch of bright red. I found the one in the bottom pic at Lakeside Cemetery in Canon City at 4 pm yesterday (very unusual to find one at that late time of day). I returned this morning to see that there are 2 adult male Williamson's and 1 adult male Red-naped Sapsuckers. Watched them chase each other around and from tree to tree. Then watched the one if the top pic as it ate fruits from a hackberry tree. Very entertaining. SeEtta

I found this male Williamson's Sapsucker at Centennial Park today and like the other sapsucker it was working near the base of the tree--the place on a pine tree where the sun shines the most and where the tree is least frozen. Also they both worked on the south exposures of the trees, again very adaptive. The sap holes visible on this tree are those this bird likely drilled today, one even shows the glint of sap albeit likely quite frozen. The fact that there have been 4 different sapsuckers trying to feed on bark, wood and sap that clearly is frozen in this harsh weather may indicate some level of desperation for food since leaving wherever it is that they are finding shelter would expend energy that badly need in these conditions, and especially all the flying/moving about I observed by the birds today would seem to use a lot of energy. The fact that the two males today moved around and between trees would seem to point out the difficulty of finding food. Their feeding on t...

Today I went out in late morning to see if any of the wintering sapsuckers would be out after we hit -19 degrees F last night. The temp was up to around 7 degrees F when I located this male Williamson's Sapsucker drilling repeatedly at the lower part of the trunk including the base of a large ponderosa pine in which I have previously seen a male Williamson's feeding this season. It is very unusual to see a sapsucker working at the base or lower part of trunk as they tend to feed above 4 feet or so in my experience (and as documented by the location of thousands of sap wells in Canon City trees). I watched from across the street to avoid disturbing him and observed him moving around the tree a lot more than I usually observe as though having difficulty finding food. After a few minutes he flew to another pine not far away but stayed only a few minutes before flying high off into the distance. After he left I went up to the tree where he had been chiseling and took photos o...

I saw 20 sapsuckers today!!!!! I was astounded to see all of these 18 sapsuckers in or just outside of Canon City,CO--and in only 3 hours of birding!!. I started off to check on male Williamson's Sapsuckers by first finding two of them at Rouse Park in the same areas where I have seen them previously. I headed directly to Lakeside Cemetery to see if the 2 male Williamson's I had seen there yesterday were there (if not, then they might be moving between the cemetery and Rouse Park and were not separate individuals from the 2 I saw at Rouse today). Surprise--not only did I refind the two male Williamson's in the area of Lakeside Cemetery I saw them yesterday but I found 3 more male Williamson's for a grand total of 5 males plus 3 female Williamson's--just at this one cemetery!!!!!! The top pic is one of the male Williamson's I found at Lakeside Cemetery today. The middle (bird probing a sap well-view is from under it's chin so a little of red throat is vis...

This is one of the two male Williamson's Sapsuckers I saws in Lakeside Cemetery in Canon City, CO today. I posted pics of 2 male Williamson's at this location in early November but I hadn't seen any males here since. I don't know if these are the same 2 males I have seen in Rouse Park which is just over a mile away or additional males. SeEtta

I found the male in the top pic on the north side of Rouse Park in Canon City last week but didn't get any photos until a few days later on Nov 15. I have seen him working this same pine tree on 3 occasions. The other two pics are of a second male Williamson's I also found on Nov 15 a few hundred yards from the other male. I have seen him in this same pine tree on days now but also have seen fresh saps wells in several other nearby pine trees. SeEtta