Flicker at Larrapin (This one poking in the ground...)
I got to see an amazing site the other day. A group of five or more flickers in a feeding frenzy! The picture above, unfortunately, is not from that event, but it’s a snapshot I had of one of our local batch of flickers. This is how I most often see them, poking around on the ground under the blackjack oak, the pine trees or the magnolias, foraging for I’m-not-sure-what. (Oh! just read up at the flicker link above and turns out they eat mostly ants and beetles…so that explains the digging…)
The amazing group I got to see was chowing down on the seedheads of smooth sumac, a little tree that often grows along roadsides and fencelines around here. (See images below.) Most folks consider them kind of weedy, even invasive in places although they are a prairie native. But I have a whole new respect for them now after seeing that whole group of flickers flapping and fluttering on top of the little trees devouring the reddish seed heads! I watched for a long while as they would alight on the tips of the thin branches, then flap and flap to stay upright while the branch bent under the weight of the large birds, all while eating at top speed. Fall off. Fly up. Repeat. It was a lovely and unforgettable sight.
Smooth Sumac Via Google Images
Once again, I’m reminded that, to amend the cliche, one man’s trash may be one bird’s treasure. In a wildlife garden, if the birds love it, the gardener probably loves it too, um, with the possible exceptions of poison ivy and poke weed…
I remember living in Western North Carolina and the utility crews would come through every few years and cut down a large stand of sumac growing under the power lines. I always thought a little tree ID would go a long way with those folks, because what better to have under power lines than a plant that never gets higher than about ten feet and often shades/crowds out species that will grow taller? I’d never cared about the sumac-whackings till early one spring when I watched a large group of bluebirds, no doubt hungry at winter’s end, happily eating the seedheads…
So I’m happy we have a small stand of smooth sumac growing at the top of the property and a few along the northern border too, because the birds sure are enjoying it. And I sure am enjoying the birds.
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
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2 Comments
I have so loved watching the birds this week. They devour our feeders almost as soon as I fill them.
I wanted to comment on cutting the sumac though. Even though they do only grow about 10 ft. tall, depending on how much power goes through the lines & how many people it leads too, they often have to keep things cut to the ground. When the air is really charged with electricity during lightning storms the electricity in the lines are very likely to arc onto anything near them. It can cause an outage or even a rolling blackout, depending on how bad the charge is & how much power is in the lines already.
We have high voltage lines from Swepco across the edge of our property then Carrol electric, our provider, as well. I don’t like the methods they sometimes use to clear the lines (Swepco sprays & Carrol just rips things out) but I understand why they need to keep them clean. We keep our own property cleared under the lines so they don’t do anything on our land. You can hear the electricity buzzing through the lines when a thunder storm is coming through. It’s pretty powerful.
Great to hear from you Jen! The bluebirds have been window shopping at the houses here the past couple weeks. Spring is much nearer!