Sapsucker Looking Rough

I got a message today that Mr. Neil's sapsucker was looking a little funky. I think his exact words were, "It looks like it's been dipped in KY Jelly." I joked, "Well, it is mating season." And there was a long pause.

I'm not sure if the joke wasn't all that funny or if people aren't used to me making bird jokes. I told him to email me some photos and the sapsucker, the sapsucker who looked so fine in April and even rather dapper in May, looks downright ratty in June.

Check out the horns! So, I'm not sure what's going on here. Did he arrive fresh from a neighboring birdbath? Did he not pay attention to his drilling and slip into some sap? Did he sleep in a tree cavity with a hole over the top and get rained on? Is he doing the flight of shame?

We shall just have to keep our eyes open for him and see what happens, he's still coming in for nuts and sunflower hearts on the copper feeder, that's a good sign.

Lisa Snellings Bee Art & Honey For Sale

I am not an artist. Sometimes, I don't understand artists, I'm more of a natural history girl, but I know lots of artists and I'm learning.

One of my favorite artists named Lisa Snellings-Clark has created some art out of our Kitty Beehive that died over this past winter. Not only that, you can bid on this piece and it even comes with honey from the actual hive, which I must say is some of the tastiest honey out there--it truly tastes like the wildflowers and fruit tree blossoms smell in spring.

It's nice to know that Queen Kitty lives in on in art.

Speaking of hives, I have it on good authority from Lorraine that the new Olga queen is out of her cage and appears to be accepted by the hive. Hopefully she's laying eggs and lots of new larvae is underway.

Frisky Finches Already?

I forgot to mention that on Friday at Carpenter, I watched a pair of goldfinches gathering nesting material! They usually don't start that until late June early July when the thistle down is out. Have I just been ignoring them and they do start nest building early if old cattail down is available? I will have to pay more attention.

Longevity

Took a little bit of a blogging break over the weekend. Non Birding Bill and I celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary. Always nice to reestablish the pair bond.

I had longevity on the brain on Friday, not only by anticipating the weekend, but because we got some old birds in the nets at Carpenter Nature Center. Normally, we'll get one or two retraps in a session and one of those birds might be a few years old, but this time we got in several older downy woodpeckers. There must have been something in the air:

A downy woodpecker originally banded 5-2-03 as an after second year bird was retrapped 5-30-08!

Another downy woodpecker originally banded on 11-14-03 as an after hatch year bird was retrapped on 12-19-03, 4-28-06 and 5-30-08.

A third downy woodepecker originally banded 11-5-04 and retrapped 5-30-08!

Though our oldest down on Friday was over seven years old and possibly a record for Carpenter, that's not the oldest down woodpecker. According to the Bird Banding Lab, the oldest downy woodpecker on record was eleven years old and eleven month.