I wish so much we could figure out if the the male and female Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers that are alternately coming in and out of garden almost daily are a pair, or just passing through. The past few days we have only seen the male, days prior to that it was the female. Is anyone else seeing these striking and very industrious beauties in their gardens?
For well over a year, our garden has been graced with the fascinating Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The visits began with a male eating Pokeberries in December of 2023 and have continued intermittently through today.
A female was here for a day last week however, we have had so many Cedar Waxwings in the Dragon Lady Holly, they may have frightened her off. For the past three days, a male YBSS has been industriously revitalizing the sap wells created by the female last year. He is also meowing!! That’s right, the appropriately named bird for a cartoon (or a proper insult), makes a crinkly mewing sound!
Listen for the mews-
Photos to Help ID Male, Female, or Juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Male YBSS – Red cap and red throat
Female YBSS – note that she does not have a red throat
Juvenile YBSS -softly mottled brown
Male Sapsucker in the rain yesterday
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Timeline
Summer 2023 – Newly seeded Pokeberry bush grows six feet first summer (most likely the seed was deposited by a bird).
December 2023 – First ever male YBSS. Stays for several days eating Pokeberries.
March – May 2024 – Female YBSS created striking grid pattern of sap wells on both the Dragon Lady Holly and Magnolia soulangeana trees, concentrating her efforts much more on the Holly. She spends many weeks drinking the sap, digging more wells, and eating insects attracted to the sap flows. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds discover the sap wells.
Summer 2024 – Ruby-throated Hummingbirds daily drink nectar from the small pinkish whiteish flowers of the Pokeweed.
October -November 2024 – Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker returns. She is drinking nectar and eating insects attracted to the sap wells every day, through November 17th.
November 12, 2024 – Both a juvenile and female at the DLHolly saplicks.
March 26, 2025 – female YBSS at the Holly tree. Flock of Cedar Waxwings may have frightened her off.
April 3rd, 4th, and 5th – Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drumming and drilling at the Dragon Lady Holly, crabapple, and Magnolia soulangeana. Mewing frequently.
Last spring I wrote about a female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that stayed in our garden for over a month. We were fascinated watching her daily activities; so much so that I was inspired to write a poem and Charlotte nicknamed her Miss Featherton. We are excited beyond measure to see the return of our beautiful YBSS. Just as she did in the spring, Miss Featherton perches in the Dragon Lady Holly throughout the day. She cautiously guards, and continues to maintain, the sap wells that she so pertinaciously dug. The sap is not flowing as vigorously as during the spring months but there is enough for her to take in a bunch of licks and the wells continue to attract insects. This morning I filmed her snatching a Yellowjacket that had stopped by to investigate the sweet sap.
We read that YBSS drill holes in unhealthy trees and were concerned our tree may beginning to decline. No need to worry though as you can see in the film clip, the holly is absolutely loaded with plump cadmium red berries.
My Yellow-bellied Sapsucker poem –
Sap-licker
Startled songbird silently flings
from approaching steps.
Behavior not usually seen by the insouciant
feathered friends that call our garden home.
Why so timorous?
Neatly arranged squares and holes
riddle the bark of the Dragon Lady Holly.
The masterfully drilled, cambium pierced checkered grid is glistening
in the sun – with deep wells and narrow streamlets of sweetness.
A sap-lick!
I wait to see her, half hidden and as
quiet as the owl after a long night
Weary and bedraggled, the Sapsucker returns
An arduous migration, no doubt.
She pauses guardedly
No one must know of her creation
with its treasured life fluid seeping down branches.
Her soft yellow belly and stippled feather patterning
Mirrors the spotty bark.
Her camouflage is not blown. She dives in with tender gusto
Delicately excavating the holes with brush tongue.
Wind rustles through leaves and she flings off
Only to return again and again and again
To her life-giving channels of gold flowing through tree veins.
YBSS are the only woodpeckers that are completely migratory. They breed further north and west of eastern Massachusetts and spend the winter months in warmer climates; some females traveling as far south as Panama. I wonder if we will see the return of the male this fall as well. It was just a year ago in December that we had our first ever Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a male, and he was eating the fruits of the Pokeberry bush. It was also the first year with a Pokeberry. The plant is rather ungainly and I had some trepidation about allowing it to take hold but if a bit of awkwardness is the price to pay for a garden inviting Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, I’ll take it!
Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Pokeberry – note the male has a red chin as well as a red cap.
Summer 2023 – Newly seeded Pokeberry bush grows six feet first summer (most likely the seed was deposited by a bird).
December 2023 – First ever male YBSS. Stays for several days eating Pokeberries.
March – May 2024 – Female YBSS created striking grid pattern of sap wells on both the Holly and Magnolia trees, concentrating her efforts much more on the Holly. She spends many weeks drinking the sap, digging more wells, and eating insects attracted to the sap flows. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds discover the sap wells.
Summer 2024 – Ruby-throated Hummingbirds daily drink nectar from the small pinkish whiteish flowers of the Pokeweed.
October 2024 – Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker returns, with daily visits into November. How long will she stay?
My friend Morgan recently wrote to ask about a tree in full bloom that she is seeing on her hikes around the quarries. She sent along some great photos.
Morgan Faulds Pike Photos
I think the tree is our native Amelanchier canadensis. There are several species of Amelanchiers native to Massachusetts but A. canadensis is the most commonly seen and most hardy for our region. Amelanchier goes by more than a few common names including Junebush, Juneberry, Serviceberry, Canada Serviceberry, Shadbush, and Shadblow. It flowers when the shad is running and fruits in June. The name Serviceberry comes because it blooms early, as soon as the ground starts to thaw, and in old New England, people weren’t able to dig graves and bury the dead until after winter. Arrangements of Serviceberry flowers accompanied many early spring funerals.
Shadblow (my favorite common name) bears delicious small deep red to blue-purple fruits. You’ll barely get to sample one though because they are a songbird favorite. To plant Shadblow, gather seeds and plant in fall so the seeds will experience a cold period. Grow in full sun or light shade in moist well-drained soil.
Amelanchier canadensis attracts Cedar Waxwings, Baltimore Orioles, Catbirds, Bluebirds, Cardinals, Robins, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, woodpeckers, thrushes, and a great many other birds that feed on its fruit. Spring blossoms attract pollinators and other insects, which also provide food for our native songbirds.
Wiki Commons Media photos
Great Egret Flying Over Perched Osprey
There is much to chortle about in this latest Cape Ann Winged Creature Update. Early April marked the arrival of both Snowy and Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons and Great Blue Herons. Osprey pairs and evidence of Osprey nest building can be seen wherever Essex Greenbelt platforms have been installed. Northern Pintail and American Wigeon Ducks are stopping over at our local ponds on their northward migrations while scrub and shrub are alive with the vibrant song of love birds singing their mating calls. Oh Happy Spring!
Ospreys Nest Building
Northern Mockingbirds Singing
Blackbird Tree
Female American Wigeon
Gadwall (center), Male Pintail, Mallards, Male and Female American Wigeons
Beaver Pond, also known as Langsford Pond, is located on the outskirts of Cape Ann’s Dogtown. Exquisitely beautiful and peaceful, the pond is teeming with life, habitat largely created by the relatively new presence of the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis).
Beavers were absent from the Massachusetts landscape from 1750 to the early 1900s due to deforestation from agriculture and unregulated hunting and fur trapping. In the early 1900s forests began to recover as farmers abandoned their fields to work in cities. By 1928, a Beaver was found in Stockbridge. The public’s enthusiasm for the return of the beavers abounded and in 1932 three additional beavers from New York were introduced and released in Lennox. Today, Beavers have rebounded to the extent that some controlled hunting is permitted.
Beavers are ecosystem engineers and the ponds they create become wildlife magnets. Think about just this one example of the ecology of a beaver pond: woodpeckers make holes in the dead trees engineered by Beaver activity, Wood Ducks nest in the holes created by the woodpeckers, and raptors hunt the smaller birds.
More examples of how Beavers benefit other species of wildlife include favored nesting sites of both the Great Blue Herons and Osprey are the dead treetops of older trees in beaver swamps. Local species of turtles, the Snapping Turtle and the Eastern Painted Turtle, benefit from abundant vegetation created by beaver tree felling, which causes the forest to regenerate. Snapping and Eastern Painted Turtles prefer standing and slow moving water and hibernate under logs and lodges of Beavers. Painted Turtles also use floating logs to bask upon.
Like Niles Pond and Henry’s Pond, Langsford Pond is another superb example of a body of fresh water close to a saltwater cove where the combination of the two ecosystems provides shelter, nesting sites, and an abundance of food. While at Langsford Pond, I often see Great Blue Herons, swooping overhead, coming and going, between feeding grounds at the head of Lobster Cove and the shelter found in the vegetation surrounding the pond. Today, December 8th, a juvenile was seen on the far side of the pond, as were numerous Wood Ducks.
Since 1999, Langsford Pond has been protected by the Essex County Greenbelt Association. When I was filming there in October and November it was wonderfully overgrown and somewhat difficult to access. Recently, vegetation has been cut back, which makes walking to the pond’s edge much easier. Disease bearing ticks are present.
Some favorite Beaver food, ferns and American White Birch (Betula papyrifera).
Similar scenes as several in the film, only a month later without the vibrant fall foliage –“stick” season
Beaver lodge from ledge above