Good morning, faithful readers! Today is Feb. 22 and it is my birthday. Since it is a rather rare occurrence that my birthday should fall on a Monday, I thought I would indulge myself and write a column about many things, rather than focus on just one species of plant or animal. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who wrote in with information on yellow-bellied sapsuckers. I’ve done my best to answer all of your emails, but it really did take me by surprise because a rare sighting of a rare wintertime bird turned out to be an extremely widespread event this year. The reason? Well, it seems that just as there are irruptive years for the winter finches, there are also occasionally what I am going to call “sapsucker years.” This winter there are pockets of sapsuckers that have been seen in western Massachusetts and I have received so many emails that I am going to make a list of the towns on my website. So, if you wrote in, thank you! If you haven’t written in yet, please do.
Angela, one of my longtime readers, sent me a photo that showed several male cardinals around a winter feeder and asked why they would all be in the same place. Well, just as I occasionally manage to send out a column that happens to match something that you might see at your feeders, that photo happened to match up with something that I have seen at my feeders for several years now.
I have a yard in a rather open setting and it is quite likely that my feeders are at the edges of several cardinal territories. In the wintertime, it is not unusual for me to see 6 to 8 male cardinals all sitting together in the lilac bushes that are right next to my feeders. In the early winter, the birds seem to tolerate one another, although there is the occasional dustup when two of the males want the same thing at the same time. I also have a feeling that some of these males are the offspring of the resident pair that mature into their adult plumage during the winter.
Anyway, all of the tolerant good will that gets them through the winter will begin to evaporate with the approach of spring. The presence of a superabundance of food will attract them together, but then territorial hostilities will eventually drive them apart again. By the time April rolls around there may only be two adult males and one will most definitely bristle at the arrival of the other. Still, access to food may provide enough motivation to share, even if they hate it.
Finally, I would like to answer a question that was relayed to me by Shelby, one of our wonderful editors. Gretchen, from Northfield, is curious to know why she’s seen multiple birds, most recently a cardinal, stay completely still, acting as if they’re frozen, but they’re not. This, too, is something that I have seen at my own feeders, so I am very familiar with the oddity of the whole event. As is often the case, the answer can be rather involved.
Having spent an enormous amount of time sitting on the deck with the birds, I have seen this happen many times. I have called this behavior, “statue mode” and it is almost always associated with the presence of a bird of prey. Hawks are visual predators and they are exquisitely sensitive to movement. So, to remain undetected a small bird can simply freeze until the threat has passed. This may be for a moment, or it may be for minutes, depending on the proximity of the hawk. Black-capped chickadees are often the first to sound the alarm with a single, quiet, high-pitched note and whenever I hear that, I know to scan the trees for hawks.
But there are also some woodpeckers that will engage in a formally named behavior called the “still pose.” Used between two birds that are engaged in a territorial dispute, or even a little pair bonding between male and female, the woodpeckers will suddenly freeze as though they saw Medusa. What makes this particular behavior so weird is the fact that it can go on for as long as 20 minutes.
Next Monday is March 1 and spring is officially on the way. We’ve had a long cold winter this year and I for one am more than ready for warm weather to release me from confinement. I hope that you will write in with any questions or column suggestions that you may have as we all get ready to get outside. In the meantime, stay safe and know that I appreciate you.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 23 years and today he turned 53. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Massachusetts State Parks and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information (including his email address), or head over to Speaking of Nature on Faceb ook.