Acorn woodpeckers have been busy gathering up their namesake nuts and storing them in granary trees. Jon Shiu wrote, “I observed a couple acorn woodpeckers in Little River."
[At first] I have not seen them with any acorns. But I looked a little closer and could see the acorns.” Jon photographed a granary tree, a dead upright tree where they drilled holes to store their acorns.
These woodpeckers drill thousands of holes in dead trees, utility poles, and other wood, filling them with harvested acorns. The whole group constantly monitors and moves drying acorns to smaller holes to keep them secure from theft by other animals.
When my research mentioned “other wood,” I had no idea these birds would use an empty birdhouse for storage in Gualala. Mark Escajeda wrote, “We enjoy our delightfully noisome year-round neighbors, a community of acorn woodpeckers. They fly around and chat among themselves as if they own the place, which we guess in many ways they do. This year they've taken advantage of the idled birdhouses we have on our side of the fence. We'll clean the houses in late winter for springtime nesting by violet-green swallows and western bluebirds, but in the meantime, we're happy to help.”
Watching Nature is fascinating! Thanks to Jon and Mark for allowing me to share their photos with you here.
We received 1.14 inches from the first storm, 25.27 season to date. Next storm is about to hit!
