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<\/p>\nIt could be said that Sage Thrashers are farmers in their own right.<\/p>\n
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Two weeks ago I had a fun encounter with about a half dozen Sage Thrashers as they were feeding on Fragrant Sumac fruits in a remote area of northern Utah. These fruits may look like berries but technically they’re drupes – fleshy fruits with thin skins and a central stone containing a single seed.<\/p>\n
There were several Fragrant Sumacs in this small area that had attracted the thrashers to their fruit and a variety of other songbirds to the insects inhabiting their leaves and stems.<\/p>\n
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The fruits were thick on the shrubs but to the disappointment of this photographer the thrashers always seemed to collect them from the interior of the bushes where I couldn’t see them so I was never able to photograph them actually harvesting the fruits. This thrasher happened to poke its head out far enough for a few quick portraits before it swallowed the fruit.<\/p>\n
However, I did manage to photograph the eventual seed disposal process. Twice.<\/p>\n
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When this thrasher landed on a dead twig near one of the sumac bushes it had nothing in its bill but before I could get the bird into focus it had hacked up one of the undigestible sumac seeds which was then…<\/p>\n
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unceremoniously dropped to the ground. I was firing a burst at the time but I didn’t catch the falling ‘pit’.<\/p>\n
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Less than three minutes later another thrasher (or more likely the same bird) landed on the same perch and began to hack up another seed.<\/p>\n
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Once again I got several photos of the hacked-up seed and once again…<\/p>\n
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I missed photographing it as it fell. Missing shots like that is one of the reasons I still lust after a camera with a faster burst rate.<\/p>\n
Fragrant Sumac is native to North America and birds are its primary agent of seed dispersal. The fruit is an important winter food for small mammals and especially for birds including turkeys, ruffed grouse, robins and flickers. So in effect these thrashers were insuring their own future food supply by dispersing the sumac seeds.<\/p>\n
To this Montana farm boy, that’s farming. Or close enough.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It could be said that Sage Thrashers are farmers in their own right.<\/p>\n\n