What Woodpeckers Eat
The woodpecker’s main diet is insects that are heard from under the bark of the tree. They will drill a hole and then use their awfully long tongue for pulling the insects out. The tongue is sticky at the end which is helpful in grasping the insect from the center of the tree. You can think of the woodpecker as a tree doctor removing the insects that could potentially do harm to the tree (that’s how I think of them)!!
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Common Flicker
What is this looking out of my box?
While out backpacking . . . . I wanted to continue my post with this woodpecker who I found inspecting my Screech Owl box on Friday!! Of course every year the only thing that uses the box is European Starling (which I always need to evict)!! Maybe this will be the year for the Flicker??
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What an Owl Smells Like
Old picture of me teaching kids some bad habits
If you regularly follow this blog . . . . then you would know that I have an obsession with smelling the heads of woodpeckers. The woodpeckers head have a pine-musty odor to them but for some reason the smell is very pleasurable to me (ya, I am nuts – I know already)!! This evening while studying the migration of the Northern Saw-whet Owls . . . . I had a quick whiff of that odor! Bet you can’t guess what I did next?? (more…)
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 