"Feed me I'm Hungry"
Three Red-breasted sapsuckers fledglings are foraging the shadowy branches of a white birch tree. Later as adults they will drill holes in the bark to consume sap and the insects attracted to the sap.
For now they are picking off surface insects and chasing one another, mouths open begging for food.
Fledgling birds chase adults mouths open and with rapid wing flutter with many other species like sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches, etc. is so much fun to watch. This genetic beging urge is strongly implanted. Survival depends on it. These three sapsuckers charge each other, rebuff one another with a "Hey, I'm not your Mom" snap and continue jumping from branch to branch foraging insects.
A old snag, harder and harder to find in this era of diminishing old growth forest and short rotation tree farms, was home to a Red-breasted sapsucker family along the Scappoose-Vernonia highway.
I heard the nestling birds calling for food at 6:30 AM. I am sure they began begging at sunrise. In the early evening when I next looked at the nest the begging cries were continuing non-stop. Nestling robins I have observed sleep between feeding visits of the adults, but these sapsuckers kept up their cacking constantly. Over a two hour photography session of the adults coming and going to the nest snag I never heard the young stop calling for food. The two adult sapsuckers averaged a feeding visit every two minutes. I wonder for how many hours a day they were able to maintain that pace.
Two fledgling Bald eagles not yet able to fly are waiting for their next meal on a large branch on a Sauvie Island tree. One is most patient occasionally scanning the sky; the other a contrast in impatience cries out and steps side to side with agitation. A half mile away is an Osprey nest I have been observing this season. Two young osprey and the adult female are waiting for the next freshwater fish to fly into the nest in the clutches of the male Osprey. A white headed Bald eagle crosses too closely, evidently, into the ospreys space. An Osprey drops out of the sky headed for the Eagle. I have seen many osprey chasing eagles. This is the first one to body slam an Eagle from behind. The sound of impact is thrilling.
I had an enjoyable hour or two watching a hungry fledgling blackbird wings a-flutter chasing a fox sparrow demanding to be fed. The fox sparrow worked hard to feed that free-loader. Another little curiosity in this "Feed Me I'm Hungry" column is a juvenile Western Scrub Jay I spotted with only one foot gathering seeds and feeding another young Scrub Jay only slightly smaller than itself.
Bill@birdingguide.com
