April 5th. On my recent walk from the Section B parking lot
to the dam at Fort Yargo State Park, I heard a bird pecking softly on the trunk
of a tree.
After looking around a bit, I spotted a small bird on a
nearby snag.
I was excited to see a Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta
pusilla). The snag wasn’t too far from the trail. There was a large tree a
couple of yards off the trail and I decided to try and use it as a ‘blind’ to
get closer to the bird.
I thought I might be able to brace myself against the tree
to photograph the nuthatch’s activity. Not so; a Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron
radicans) vine was climbing the tree. Nevertheless, I could still use the tree
to minimize my intrusion on the scene.
The bird seemed unperturbed by my presence and continued to
work on the snag.
It was pecking around the edge of a hole through the bark.
Periodically, it would look around before going back to
work.
It would remove debris from around the edge of the hole and
drop it on the ground.
After working around the margin of the hole, it would almost
disappear into the hole, and…
remove more debris from deep within the hole.
Again, it would look around before repeating the whole
process repeatedly. I assumed from its complete focus on its work that it was
building a nest.
When I returned on April 12th, I didn’t see any
activity at the hole.
I could also see another hole above the first hole from
April 5th.
So, my question is: Was it building a nest and abandoned this
hole, or was it simply searching for food? I didn’t seen any sign of food
gathering so I am still assuming that it was a nest building activity. Either way,
it was interesting to watch this activity and I’m going to keep an eye on this
snag to see if there’s any sign of nesting activity as time goes on.
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