Catching up with some Sapsuckers

     Every once in a while I am fortunate enough to be able to conduct a 30-minute stationary count during mid-day at a point in about the middle of the woods adjacent to my house.  Monday was one of those days, and my count was the 47^th half-hour count at that site since the beginning of April.  I have seen a lot of that 23.5 hours of observation at the same place in the woods over the last five-plus week.  I want to pass along a bit of natural history I observed that day focused on Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. 

     I’ve had the great fortune of watching a pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers establish a territory that virtually centers on my point count location.  Over the course of about two weeks in April, I watched as they took turns excavating a new cavity on a Red Maple branch that already had eight woodpecker holes in it.  Indeed, they chased away a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches that seemed to want to use one of the smaller holes on the back side of the branch.  The new Sapsucker cavity was constructed on the branch facing my count point and only about 20 yards away. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at entrance to nest cavity in Red Maple tree.

     As excavation neared completion, I almost laughed out loud watching the male appear from inside the cavity with mouthfuls of wood chips, spit them out in a shower, and disappear back inside for another mouthful.  In addition to watching nest excavation, I have witnessed neat interactions between the pair, including lots and lots of soft mews and other vocalizations I doubt I had ever heard.  Twice I witnessed the female visit the presumably completed nest, disappear inside for a couple of minutes and then depart again.  Once, she sat just outside the cavity and preened for over 10 minutes before going inside for a couple minutes, then emerging and flying away.  Perhaps she was laying an egg at those times.

Reaching in to dig out the back of the nest cavity.

     Monday, I did my count from 1:45 to 2:15pm.  At 1:57, I saw the female emerge from the cavity (I did not know she was in there), and fly to a tree about 50 yards away.  She defecated almost on top of me as she flew over my head, suggesting to me that she might have been in the cavity for a while.  When she landed, she issued on soft mew call that was returned from somewhere just out of site in another direction.  After two minutes, the male flew to the cavity, looked inside, then flew away out of view.  At 2:06, the female return and sat preening right outside the nest cavity.  Then at 2:10 she disappeared inside the nest.

     May their nest be successful.