Was watching our resident woodpeckers and noticed one picking up kernels of corn and hiding them in the folds of the bark in our elm tree ! Colder than normal winter or just hoarding food ? We feed all winter long !
I think it was Kildale that posted a photo of a woodpecker stashing acorns in holes in a stump. I picked this up off the 'net: Besides acorns and beechnuts red-headed woodpeckers store corn kernels, pine seeds, grasshoppers and crickets for winter retrieval. The colder the winter, the more stored food is retrieved. Acorns have a long shelf life. With their hard, protective coatings, they can be stored for about a year. Your woodpecker may be telling you to prepare for a cold winter!
We have a few different types of birds that do this as well as our woodpeckers. Tree Creepers and Nuthatches in particular.
Ahhh,, guess I had better get the winter clothes out ! Thanks all ! And as a footnote ,, The birds I asked bout in an earlier post are two types,,Magnolia Warbler and Yellow Butted Warbler ! Now have to find all the rest of them ! Unusual year,, have never seen so many different birds at the watering hole !
