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<\/p>\nInclement weather and lack of light are keeping me from shooting so this morning I decided to post some earlier images of some interesting sapsucker behavior.\u00a0 I’ve posted similar images previously but these are new to my blog.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon\u00a0EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n These images were taken in Clark County, Idaho this past June as the mated pair of\u00a0Williamson’s Sapsuckers were raising a brood of chicks in their nest hole in a dead aspen.\u00a0\u00a0 As the chicks grow the adults\u00a0excavate the interior of the hole to make it larger and I could often hear them chipping away at the dead wood from my vantage point outside.\u00a0 After a while the adult (here it’s the male) would discard a beak-full of wood chips, either by flying away with them or…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon\u00a0EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0simply violently shaking his head to disgorge them from his beak and letting them fall to the base of the tree.\u00a0 Here his nictitating membrane is closed to protect his eye from flying chips.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D, Canon\u00a0EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The female was also busy with domestic duties.\u00a0 Here she’s leaving the nest hole after delivering a load of ants to the chicks inside.\u00a0\u00a0Hoping to see the chicks as they began to fledge I returned to this tree in July but by then they had already dispersed.<\/p>\n A whole host of cavity nesting bird species rely on dead and dying trees for their nest holes but when those “snags” are prematurely\u00a0removed by man the resource disappears and birds suffer.\u00a0 Thankfully there are organizations like\u00a0The Cavity Conservation Initiative<\/a> whose primary goal is to encourage (largely through education)\u00a0the retention of dead and dying trees for the use of cavity nesters.\u00a0 Recently I donated an image of these sapsuckers excavating their nest hole to the CCI for their educational programs\u00a0and I encourage others to support them and similar groups\u00a0and to refrain from clearing out dead and dying trees whenever practical.<\/p>\n Cavity nesters need all the help from us they can get.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A whole host of cavity nesting bird species rely on dead and dying trees for their nest holes but when those “snags” are prematurely removed by man the resource disappears and birds suffer.<\/p>\n![\"williamson's](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/williamsons-sapsucker-0095-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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