by Ryan Ponto | May 28, 2017 | Bird Netting
I’ve become the proprietor of an avian cheeseburger shack. We are so popular with the birds that I now trudge out every morning in my pajamas to make sure there is birdseed for breakfast. Heavy on the sunflower seeds, light on the thistle. We feed blue ones, red ones, black ones, brown ones, some spotted ones with red heads, and some bright yellow ones that are very little. I guess it’s obvious that I’m not too knowledgeable about birds. I am a city girl with a city girl’s appreciation of pigeons in the winter and gulls in the summer.
My Aunt Margie was a fanatic birder. She would go out birding with her binoculars and baggy shorts and wait for some precious specie to waft by. She kept a life list of every bird she had seen. She could trill bird calls if you asked and didn’t snicker. Her house was filled with Audubon prints, clocks that sounded bird calls on the hour and in her yard, a custom-made bird dream house with specs written for some kind of bird. I forget which kind of bird. Privately, we thought she was nuts.
Our own bird obsession started with the woodpecker last summer. Late summer, we started to hear a sharp tap-tap-tapping near the back of our house. Originally, I thought it was a plumbing racket. Or maybe a branch banging remarkably consistently in the wind. But every time I went out to investigate, the noise magically stopped. Just a bird flying away. It took a week for us to connect the dots between the ever-widening hole in the shingle and the bird in the nearby tree.
I went in to my husband. “I think we have Woody Woodpecker.” He reminded me that Woody was a cartoon and made the famous sound of the cartoon from our childhood. Hard to render into syllables, but “Eh-eh-eh-Uh-Oh!” I dragged him outside to see the evidence. We found a moldy copy of Birds of the Northeast clearly identifying the culprit. The next day, a handyman put a metal patch over the hole. Problem solved. The next week the woodpecker migrated (was there only one?) to the other side of the house. Another metal plate. I was starting to worry that our house would morph, from a clapboard farmhouse into an aluminum box, in one-foot-square increments.
My exhaustive research consisted of googling the catchy query, “What to do about woodpeckers?” and it yielded a few solutions. One: move. There are more birds than you. Two: get a birdfeeder and fill it with suet. What the heck. If you can’t beat ’em, feed ’em. It worked! Our woodpeckers invited their suet loving friends over for lunch and stopped snacking on our house. We started to like the birds. So many varieties! All day long, singing and chirping. We bought a new bird book and binoculars.
This year, when the frost was still on the morning grass, we got a second bird feeder. One you fill with seed not suet. I bought a big bag of birdseed at the grocery store and poured it in. The birds flocked, excited to locate our free buffet. The first bag lasted a month while the birds were flying back from Florida. Now, we think Yelp for Birds must have given us a very favorable review. At the hardware store, I was flabbergasted by the whole aisle of bird seed, like the cereal aisle at the Stop & Shop. Too many choices.
The guy with the white beard and nice smile asked me an existential question: “What kind of birds do you want?” I had no idea. “The pretty ones,” I answered. He looked at me indulgently, the way he might if I asked for a wrench with a pink handle but couldn’t tell him whether it was an Allen or a whatever. He tapped on a huge bag. “The ‘pretty ones’ like this. They like sunflower seeds. And mix it with this bag of thistle seed too.” For good measure, I bought a red glass hummingbird feeder and hummingbird food too. In for a cardinal, in for a humming bird. Humming birds are attracted by red, my new sage informed me.
He was so right. We became bird heaven by the end of the first day. A fly-in food truck for the Cohasset flock. The J-J’s of the feathered set. Full of seed in the morning, crumbs by evening. I was feeling good. Virtuous even. Then I had lunch with my lovely cousin Marianne, daughter of my Aunt Margie, the birder. “You shouldn’t feed birds in the Spring and Summer, you know”, she said. “They need to forage.” Crestfallen! My little good deed upsetting the organic balance of nature! And then I decided, screw that. Turns out I like operating a cheeseburger stand for birds. I get to see all the pretty ones.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | May 27, 2017 | Bird Netting
An obsession with keeping the landscape tidy has been blamed for the rapid disappearance of Britain’s smallest woodpecker.
The population of lesser spotted woodpeckers has almost halved since 2009 because dead trees are being quickly removed from parks and woods, the British Trust for Ornithology said. The sparrow-sized birds have been declining since about 1980 and only about 2000 remain.
The birds tend to nest in decaying wood because it is softer and therefore easier for them to peck when carving a nesting hole.
Trust spokesman Paul Stancliffe said decaying trees used to be left in place but landowners were now more likely to remove them, partly because of excessive concerns over health and safety.
“They are being tidied up much more, especially in parks,” he said. “If there is a danger of trees falling across paths, they are being removed.”
The decline is revealed in an annual report on wild bird populations based on data collected by the trust. Greenfinches have fallen by 39 per cent and turtle doves by 70 per cent over the same period. Both affected by trichomonosis, a disease that affects the throat and prevents birds from feeding.
There are signs, however, that a decline in farmland birds may have been halted. The number of farmland birds has more than halved since 1970, mainly due to the intensification of farming and increased pesticide use. The latest figures show a 6 per cent increase in the birds from 2014 to 2015.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | May 26, 2017 | Bird Netting
Strong claws, short legs and stiff tail feathers enable woodpeckers to climb tree trunks and use their sharp bills to chisel out insects for food, make nest holes and drum territorial signals to rivals.
Second to the ivory-billed woodpecker, the pileated woodpecker is the largest commonly seen in North America. This perched bird is almost entirely black on its back and wings. A white chin and dark bill put the finishing touches on its distinguished look.
Preferring dense, mature forest, it seems to be adapting well to human encroachment, becoming more common and tolerant of disturbed habitats — so that very well could be the “rat-a-tat-tat” you hear at your front door.
In woodlands or your backyard you can listen for its slow, resounding hammering. If it’s nearby, look up, follow the sound and you’ll probably be able to spot its pointed, blood-red capped head on the side of a tree, leaving a long rectangular or oval hole. Carpenter ants in fallen trees and stumps are its major food source.
The tongue of the woodpecker is long, usually with barbed tips, so it can be thrust out to spear an insect and draw it out of its hiding place in the wood. The tongue is coated with sticky saliva that helps it gather small insects like ants, but they also eat berries, fruits and nuts.
You might say their diet consists of protein, fiber-rich carbohydrates and grains, which means low fat and natural sugars. Maybe we humans should adapt a woodpecker diet. But I don’t think that’s what my husband means when he says I eat like a bird at dinner time.
Larger holes can be found for nesting. Fine chips of wood form at the bottom of the hole to cushion the eggs. When hatched, the young are featherless.
Red-bellied woodpeckers look like zebras in flight with their black-and-white barred backs. The male has red on his crown and nape. Females only have red on their necks, but both have a reddish patch on their belly, thus the name red-bellied woodpecker. They are common in open woodlands and parks.
The red-headed woodpecker is definitely colorful, sporting an entire head of dark red plumage contrasting with a blue-black back and snowy white underside. It inhabits open woods, farmlands, parks and backyards, foraging tree trunks and the ground for insects, berries and acorns. It will utilize any vacant cavity in a fence post, dead tree or even an electric pole to store acorns for the winter.
My hanging bird feeder serves as a quick snack stop for numerous red-bellied woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers and even the small white-breasted nuthatch, a short-tailed acrobatic bird that looks very similar to a woodpecker the way it hangs upside down on the bird feeder and scales a tree trunk.
When you check out the rapping at your front door and find no one there, it could be that a woodpecker was making a visit. Now, if they start ringing the doorbell, well, I don’t know about that!
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | May 25, 2017 | Bird Netting
Since your column talks a lot about crows … For the last few years I have had two crows with a white feather on their wing and believed it was something white they had gotten into – maybe paint. Later I heard they were from Nova Scotia. I wonder if that’s true? Did they fly all the way over here?
Anyway, you asked me where Bear River got its name. Well, at one time a lot of bears lived in the woods here in Bear River and there are many rivers flowing through the trees. The bears are all gone now but as I walk through the trails I wonder if one might be lurking in the woods.
We have a walking trail back of our home and there’s an old tree with the bark all shaved off and sawdust down all around the tree on the ground. I heard a commotion around that area for days now and saw two Northern Flickers flying around. I thought I’d take a look and found a perfectly round hole in the tree that looked like a carpenter had drilled it out. How exciting. It’s carved perfectly round.
A red bucket has been hanging on the branch below the woodpecker hole for years and when I peeked inside there was a big pile of sawdust. It must have come from the hole because when I was sitting on my hammock, I saw the woodpecker pounding away at the hole and sawdust was flying everywhere. It made me wonder if he looked at that sawdust and was quite proud of his accomplishment.
While I am writing to you Brenda, do you know what kind of seeds woodpeckers eat? We have lots of little black and white woodpeckers with little red hats on the back of their heads. Maybe they eat more than insects.
In the trail behind my home I spotted an owl on a tree and then realized there were three of them. I can hear them hooting close by at night.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | May 24, 2017 | Bird Netting
I recently had the opportunity to go out in the field with Kerry Brust, a red-cockaded woodpecker biologist in the North Carolina Sandhills. I went with Brust to put brightly colored and aluminum bands on nestling red-cockaded woodpeckers. It’s part of a research project begun in 1978, initiated by Dr. Phil Doerr and Dr. Jay Carter III of N.C. State University. Sandhills Ecological Institute, a nonprofit formed in 1998, continues the research in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Walters’ lab at Virginia Tech. The Sandhills institute was created to: research and monitor the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and related ecosystems in North and South Carolina; promote the study of and education about the longleaf pine and related ecosystems; engage in scientific studies and promote education regarding the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) and its habitats. The institute maintains demographic databases on the woodpeckers and studies the biology and behavior of the species. The studies have provided insights that are applied throughout the Southeast and have helped in the creating of important tools for managing the red-cockaded woodpeckers, such as artificial cavities and cavity restrictors. The intensive monitoring of the birds’ population entails inspecting the status of cluster and cavity trees, routine nest checks from April to July, color-banding nestlings and unbanded adults, conducting adult group census, and checking on fledglings to document whether reproduction is successful. Brust is co-director of the Sandhills institute with Jay Carter and is the supervising biologist. Two other full-time biologists assist her, Andy Van Lanen and Anna Prinz. Each year the institute monitors approximately 300 red-cockaded woodpecker clusters at Fort Bragg, Camp Mackall, the Sandhills Game Land, McCain Forest, The Nature Conservancy’s Calloway Forest, Weymouth Woods State Nature Preserve and various private lands.
We were out on Fort Bragg. Federal lands (including those owned by the Department of Defense) are required to protect federally listed species such as red-cockaded woodpeckers. The birds were listed as endangered in 1968 and were one of the first species covered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. They are a non-migratory, cooperatively breeding species that lives in family groups and defends a set territory called a cluster. Clusters are the collection of cavity trees used by a single woodpecker family group. Groups can be a breeding pair only, or have as many as four to five generally related helpers. They’re considered an “umbrella” species, meaning other species also benefit from management for the red-cockaded woodpeckers, such as prescribed fire, thinning of understories, etc. We went out early in the morning, and since it was drizzling, we started our day just doing nest checks. This involves using a camera on a pole that can be stuck in the cavity. It sends an image down to a viewer where we can see what is in the nest. The first few nests had nothing in them but wood chips, which is how the woodpeckers prepare for egg laying. We finally found a newly hatched chick, about three days old, with eggs that still had not hatched. It stopped raining so we were able to go to a nest where babies needed to be banded. Brust climbs ladders that she stacks as she goes to get up to the cavity hole. She uses a delicate string noose to carefully remove the babies from the nest. Then she places them in a soft cotton bag to carry them down and back to the truck. Here she pulls them out and masterfully places bands on their legs while they are wriggling about and making soft chirping noises. Then she climbs back up and puts them safely back in their nest. The ideal age for banding nestlings is 6 to 8 days old. It was remarkable to get to see these birds up close. The North Carolina Sandhills population of red-cockaded woodpecker is just one of 13 Primary Core Recovery Populations the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has designated throughout the Southeast as needed for complete recovery of the species. Although population increases have been observed within Sandhills public lands, the woodpeckers are still a protected species. While military training restrictions for the Army have been relaxed on Fort Bragg, regulations remain in place for development and timber harvesting that affect the woodpeckers’ foraging and nesting habitat. As with many listed species, the birds’ future remains precarious. It’s good that groups like the Sandhills Ecological Institute are helping watch over the species that remain.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
