The Mysterious Case of Ms. Sapsucker.

One of the first discoveries we made after moving into the new building was that a visitor had started "hanging around" every other day or so. The Eastern Phoebes and Palm Warblers and an occasional Downy Woodpecker were nice but who could ask for a better photo op than our next guest.

I was asked what kind of Woodpecker would have red on its head. Having seen the male Downy around the day before, that was my best guess. Then she came down while I was hard at work. A female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! Excellent!

I was recently missing the one that let me get some good shots from about 7 feet away at the old workplace neighborhood and couldn't imagine a better opportunity. This is my favorite shot of that afternoon. I took 27 digitals from all angles.



Not bad for a late Fall walk in an industrial zone.

News of the trees surrounding the new office location was promising and knowing about the nearby lakes and retention ponds I mentioned in earlier posts were an even better prospect. New birds were bound to show up in this new spot. So, it was a little surprising to find this new Sapsucker in a different perch: the edges of our 2nd floor windows.

This is one of the early shots from my window.



With the tinting on the outside of these windows we have discovered that she cannot see in much at all. Either that or she just doesn't care. I have the camera set to macro and the lens is right next to the glass.

The mysterious part of our tale is that she will show up at different times for each visit (one day 8 AM, the next stop at 11 AM on a different day) and she usually stays for about 15 minutes. This time is filled with her pecking at the edge of the windows, looks around and sometimes moves to a different part of the window sill and repeats.

Occasionally, she will peck, look and fly upwards along the glass and land and repeat. After the 15 minutes she moves off into the trees. Weird. Not a huge amount of bugs near the windows that we can see. If you look closely at this shot you might be able to see the scores she has made on the film on the outside of the windows.



Following just over a month of these sightings, I have come to my conclusion. I theorize that she is not digging for insects but causing vibrations on the glass that make any small insects fly of of it. She then scoots up the pane to try and grab one and then tests the next part of the glass.

Another occurence that I think supports this is that during one of these visits by the Sapsucker an Eastern Phoebe swooped in just above her to grab a bug near the glass. Has anyone heard of this behavior before? I took a couple small Quicktime movies not long ago to document the process she goes through. We enjoy watching her when she stops by.

Here is the lady in action:



Last sighting, however, was on January 16th. Doesn't keep me from checking.

We are planning on setting up a bird feeder that we can hang in one of the trees here somehow and hope I can get some more interesting reports of special birds right outside the windows.