Visitors 59
Modified 22-Jun-24
Created 20-Jun-24
16 photos
Launching from a high perch atop a Blue Oak, Acorn Woodpeckers swoop and dive, over and over, acting more like swallows than wood-chiseling headbutters. Collecting insects at each pass, they keep returning for more. Why do they save them in their beaks, and not simply swallow as swallows do? Are they saving them for chicks? I also saw no swallows (birds) – no swallows in either sense of the noun.
I can’t really see what kind of insects they catch. Clearly an eruption of some sort. Other birds gather. A native Carpenter Ant scurries across the baked ground.
Thus begins our monthly bird transect from Escobar Gate, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve -- 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma. The rest of the morning is documented in the next gallery.
BONUS: In November 2013, a male Acorn Woodpecker brings an insect to his partner after an intimate moment. See <https://capturethelight.zenfolio.com/131102woodpeckers>.
BONUS 2: A couple of days after an early rainfall, on 9/22/2013, Acorn Woodpeckers and other birds have an orgy of aerial acrobatics, catching emerging termites. They do not hold them in their beaks, but swallow. Swallowing in both senses of the verb. See <https://capturethelight.zenfolio.com/130922birds>.
I can’t really see what kind of insects they catch. Clearly an eruption of some sort. Other birds gather. A native Carpenter Ant scurries across the baked ground.
Thus begins our monthly bird transect from Escobar Gate, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve -- 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma. The rest of the morning is documented in the next gallery.
BONUS: In November 2013, a male Acorn Woodpecker brings an insect to his partner after an intimate moment. See <https://capturethelight.zenfolio.com/131102woodpeckers>.
BONUS 2: A couple of days after an early rainfall, on 9/22/2013, Acorn Woodpeckers and other birds have an orgy of aerial acrobatics, catching emerging termites. They do not hold them in their beaks, but swallow. Swallowing in both senses of the verb. See <https://capturethelight.zenfolio.com/130922birds>.
Dan Quinn