Feeding Clark's Nutcrackers!

Although I have had bird feeders at my home for 15 or so years, it has been only in the past several years that Clark's Nutcrackers have been visiting them. And they are picky feeders - only taking peanuts in the shell and working on suet feeders. The question as to why these neat birds have shown up here only recently is an interesting one. A good guess would be that the major infestation of pine bark beetles that is killing off huge numbers of Ponderosa Pine trees in the surrounding hills has resulted in a shortage of conifer cone seeds, a major food source for Nutcracker's.

Clark's Nutcrackers are members of the Corvidae Family along with crows, magpies, and jays. And it doesn't take too many hours of observing them to get a good idea about their intelligence. When they come to take peanuts(in the shell) from my platform feeder, they are very careful about which one they pick to carry away. They pick one up and quickly shake it as if to make sure that there are some nuts inside. Then they usually put it down and try another one, seemingly trying to see which one is the heaviest. Once they make up their "mind", off they go stash the peanut in some safe place for future use. Occasionally, they will stay at the feeder and expertly peck open the shell to extract the nuts. Some are swallowed whole and others may be broken into pieces that are more easily swallowed. The other day, I watched one bird carefully swallowing as many nuts as it could fit in its crop. The last one tried would not fit, so the bird regurgitated several of them and then carefully re-swallowed to see if there was room for the last nut. It was successful and flew away with a bulging crop.

It is quite obvious that there is a distinct pecking order among the Nutcracker's. Of the 5-6 of these birds that I see in the mornings, two of them are very brave and dominant. They will approach within 2 to 3 feet of me when I stand by the feeder. Others will not approach unless I am inside the house. And these more hesitant birds will not go to the feeder when one of the "brave" ones is there. Rarely will more than one bird at a time be present on the feeder. If it is a "sub-dominant" one it will immediately fly away at the approach of another.

On most days, as soon as the Nutcrackers come to the feeder to begin their process of stashing peanuts for future use, magpies also show up. These are not my favorite birds so I "shoo" them away from the feeder. Being every bit as smart as the nutcrackers, I noticed that the magpies would sit somewhere nearby where they could watch the Nutcrackers hiding the peanuts. Then they would go looking for the nuts as soon as the nutcrackers flew back to the feeder. I haven't yet figured out a legal way to deal with these robber magpies - but I'm working on it!!

I have taken some video of the feeder antics of Nutcrackers, but have not yet mastered video editing software that I need to get this footage attached to this blob. That is one of the "chores" that is on my "to do" list for the coming winter. Until I have mastered that new skill, you'll have to be satisfied with the still images I embed in these blogs!!

I'm having a bit of trouble lately with the formatting/layout of these blogs so please bear with me until I get that sorted out. The undated editor that is now available has caused some problems for me!!

I just finished putting some video clips of Nutcrackers together and will now experiment with putting the result into this blog. OOOPS! Guess it won't take the format that I converted to - and the .avi files ar e too large. So back to the drawing board!!

A Break from Montana Birding

In the process of moving data and pictures from an older computer to a new one over the past several days, I have taken some time to review the folders I've been transferring to make sure they contained something I would want available on a relatively frequent basis. One of the folders I looked at in this review process contained the photo images from a trip to Florida with my wife Kathy last April. Computers make access to memories such as these much more convenient than albums of photos stored away in the corner of a closet.

On this trip, we visited several different locations in Florida, but the one aspect that stands out most vividly was the several days we spent with great friends Jim and Wendy at their condo on the east coast. They organized a wonderful reunion for us with some old high school friends of mine, several of whom I had not seen since 1961 - almost a half century ago! In this image, it is easy to tell who is the one individual not living in Florida by looking at the bare legs!And for the following day, Jim, being an avid photographer and birder like me, scheduled an air boat ride through a wetland for Wendy and him, and Kathy and me at the nearby Blue Cypress Recreation Area. These tours are conducted by Capt. Steve Hayes of Stumpknocker Tours and I high recommend him. It was a beautiful Florida day and the company and scenery were equally great. Of course, the one critter you would expect to find in a marsh such as this was an alligator and it didn't take long to find our first one. But our real goal was the bird-life that these marshes or swamps or whatever you want to call them are famous for. And we were not disappointed! These subtropical habitat types are truly amazing for their productivity and biological diversity. Here is a Common Moorhen chick begging for a handout! Egrets and heron are among the most common of the larger birds found in these habitats. While osprey are now commonly found associated with water bodies throughout the country, they are especially abundant in Florida. One of the most exciting moments of this air boat ride was watching a Peregrine Falcon capture and fly away with what looked like a Common Moorhen. In a series of photos I took of this interaction, the falcon can be seen reaching down and breaking the neck of its prey while it flies away. There was one bird species in particular that I had targeted for this excursion - a Snail Kite and we were fortunate enough to find a pair of them. This was a life bird for me!

Thanks Jim and Wendy for a memorable several days and a lifetime of friendship!!!!