Nesting Season!

Dan, Lisa Byrd, and I walked Luria Park this afternoon and saw evidence of nesting!

Here is a female Red-bellied Woodpecker excavating a nest cavity. We watched her tossing out beak-fulls of saw dust as she made her happy home.

This pair of Carolina Wrens spent a lot of energy packing the crevice of a large rotted stump with moss and leaves.
Looking forward to seeing the hatchlings later this spring!

Forgaing for Buggy Delights

I spent a good part of the afternoon on March 7th in Luria Park near the Raymondale entrance. A lot of leaf flipping on the forest floor caught my eye. A male Northern Flicker was exuberantly thrashing about the leaf litter and probing the ground underneath.

 Northern Flickers love to eat ants and ant larvae. They have a tongue that will stick out about two inches from the end of their beak to get the tasty insectiod treats. They feed primarily on the ground and while walking through the woods or any grassy area you could scare them up from the ground.

A few feet from the Flicker was a male Red-bellied Woodpecker also foraging.

He chose to hunt near a fallen rotted tree for his favorite food: spiders. They will also eat seeds and nuts. It is possible he is finding tasty arthopod or nut in this location.

All I know is I am glad I don't have to shove my face and tongue into the ground to get dinner!

Merlin in Luria Park

Late in the day on March 1st,  we spied a slender silhouette darting above the tree tops like Top Gun fighter jet. The bird landed on a tall tree top to the north of the boardwalk in Luria Park and we got a nice view of it and identified the bird as a Merlin.

The Merlin is a smaller raptor that winters along the east coast before migrating north to breed in Canada. They like to eat birds and can catch them in mid-air. A fast and fierce raptor in a small 10-12 inch package.