Feeding time...

Male Northern Flicker rests outside his nest after feeding.

His toes are so sweet!

So, it started last season when we saw the Northern Flickers return to a cavity nest in the birch tree across the street. The previous year we had watched them carve the nest out of a dead limb on the tree, and were amazed at how many people walked right past this display without even noticing! Birch shavings spewing out of the little hole left a little blond pile on the green grass below, and when the birds themselves flew around, it was quite a distraction...
A brown bird, just smaller than a small crow and from the woodpecker family, with the brightest orange undercarriage I have ever seen. The first time I have ever seen a Flicker feather, I was riding my bike up Manitoba street and there were a few blowing across the street. I thought they were dyed orange feathers and wondered why they were there... I got off my bike to gather them up, when I found him in the street at the side of the road. His long black beak had blood on it so i knew he was dead. He was the most beautiful bird I had ever seen in real life. I picked him up and put him in my basket and buried him under the lilac tree in the backyard of the little house we were living in at the time.
Now I see them everywhere. I have learned they do tend to get killed by urban encroachment, but are really fighting to adapt. They feed on the ground, so they get hit by cars, and poisoned by all the crap people thoughtlessly use around the house and in the garden and on the lawn. Some reports say that domestic cats are to blame for a decrease in the bird population. I say bull*^$t. Every cat everyone has ever known could have gone out and killed birds all day long, and the numbers would still be billions less than what humans have done! Don't blame cats- it's just stupid.

Female Northern Flicker: photo of her moving her own egg.

     One afternoon last year, we were coming home from walking the dogs when we saw the female move 5 eggs, from this cavity to another one east of here a block. After that, we only saw them occasionally- almost like this was a tree for respite and peace from at least 5 baby hatchlings... all jammed into one cavity!
     This year I kept my camera at the ready, caught the mating rituals, nest claiming and breeding take place. A few days after we saw the breeding, we caught the birds moving their eggs!

... and then another mating ritual! We watched and knew they must be laying more inside this cavity nest too. There was always one of the birds in the cavity nest at all times before they moved the eggs, and now again.. One would fly up and roost on the entry, the other would leave just after one landed. As you saw if you watched the above video....

Male landing on entrance to cavity...

      Two weeks later they are now busier than ever gathering food and going in and out of the nest with great regularity. Now there's still almost always someone around, but not always inside the cavity like when they were first sitting. The mama sits outside the cavity and has a long bath in the sun in the middle of the afternoon. She fluffs up her polkadot feathers and preens each one. It's adorable. They are such beautiful birds... we really have to think about what we are doing to nature.

Male Flicker returning to the nest.

Their are just so pretty to watch, and hard working...

There is serious talk about a coal mine starting on Vancouver Island in pristine wilderness. Yes, a coal mine, starting up - and no, it's not 1911. It's a hundred years later and we have alternatives, but who needs those? 

Instead, at the Raven Mine, they want to mine the coal, disturbing all that is sacred, destroying water and ecosystems for profit. This is a very serious problem for us. Not because it's cold up here in Canada and we need it to keep everyone cosy after hockey on the pond... no - someone is selling that coal to China. That's right to China, because $$ doesn't give a shit about the planet in China. Poor China, barely seems to care about China. 

   This is a very serious for everyone on the planet. British Columbia has a duty to the rest of the planet to set an example, and we are about to f*&@k it up on a global level. For money that will never line the pockets of anyone who will use it for any good. Not out of desperation or as a last resort. Just because that's how corporations roll....

 Readers, we need to stop this mine, and I am pretty sure we can, for once stop the big fat greedy wheel of disillusionment from cutting through our part of the rainforest.

     Who's with me?

May: Northern Flicker Report 3

The birch tree now has foliage, but it was bare when all this started. The flickers are very busy in the nest across the street. I am certain they are sitting on eggs, there is always someone in the cavity. They feed on our suet paddles at each shift change. They seem to take turns about every 3 hours roughly.

They have a definite habitual pattern to their day, and rain or shine they are shift changing and rotating. One thing I can't clearly make out is whether or not the two females are in rotation together or if he works both nests. I will see if there are two females there at once, but if they alternate between the male, I have no real way of differentiating.

When I was younger, my mom -spiritual teacher that she is- gave me a book written by Anne Cameron, called Daughters of Copperwoman. It's special book to say the least, with a lot of ponderable goodness throughout.

Like, "The only surviving census came from memorizers of the warrior society; from their perspective, a man had multiple wives, whereas the woman memorizor's view was that several women shared one husband." It's more than just a respect/ownership thing. Less about power, more about survival. I wonder how the Flickers feel. Does he have 2 wives, or do the females share one husband? because it looks like the females share one husband. Most of the mating ritual was between the females.

They danced through the branches of the birch tree tirelessly for weeks. He only came to watch their display during this time, there was no mating. That started after the dance between the females.

I haven't had time to thoroughly discover where the second nest is. It's close and down the back alley, but there are a few cavity nests in the hydro poles and I haven't seen any traffic to or from any of them yet. But I know there is one, because those eggs were taken with deliberate speed and to the same place each trip - not random drop sights. After the eggs were moved, there was another round of mating, my guess is to the second wife. And I think the second wife is in this tree.

What makes all this even more interesting, is that this egg moving business is a totally brand new discovery. No one has seen it, made any record of it, and we have video! 2 videos, actually.

When they were mating, the females bobbed their heads and flitted with each other around the birch for more than a week. If they were in between dances, they would rest together on the same limb. They would fly off together darting through the trees and around the rooftops. They would circle around their nest and the other one a block away and then fly back, both landing high in the bare tree, screaming for the male to come quickly, which he always did.

These days there is only some chatter in the wee morning hours, like around 5:15 AM. The it's all quiet, except for the changing of the guard... The shift changes go like this: She flies up and lands near the nest. He pokes his head out and sees her. He flies out and to either the roof or the suet paddle. She immediately lands on the nest entry-hole and hangs there a second before going inside. They know the Starling had been in and out of there during their mating dances. Now there's no chance for that to happen, because there is always someone in it or on the cavity hole!

After the shift change, she sits for about an hour and then he returns. She knows he is coming about a minute or two before he gets to the tree, so he must call and I just can't hear it - or they have a tight agreement.

He lands in the top of the tree and waits, her head poked out of the hole. He makes his way down to the cavity, limb by limb hopping down to her. He hangs on the hole as her head is poked out and then she flies away, always to the roof or the suet paddle, then to the other nest or yet one more location they come from across the street and south a block.

This is the female going into the nest. This is actually immediately after the second time they mated. She hangs outside on the cavity entry after mating, and those fluffy white feathers are all exposed, I like to make comments to Eliza like, look who has her knickers down again...

I am choked that I am still having trouble loading the videos onto this blog. I have been trying all day again and it always fails...

I love my desktop, but I worry her days are numbered... please hold out until afford to replace you, sweet eve. That's what I call my computer. And I called her that WAY before Wall-E. I called her that because she , eve, my Mac, is the mother of all creation. Which has nothing to do with evolution and everything to do with art...

Important Northern Flicker Discovery!

Okay, things are back to normal on BLOGGER, and so I will attempt to share with you the most spectacular footage! The Northern Flicker doing something never before recorded, or seen - well, actually we saw this same family do this last year and no one believed us when we asked around about it. This year we got pictures AND video to back up our claims.

Without further ado, the official FIRST TIME EVER REPORT:

FLICKER MOVES THEIR EGGS!

Filmed by Jenny Macintosh & witnessed by Jenny Macintosh & Eliza Hargreaves for 2 years running:

It happened the same way last year. We watched the return of the Flickers, then the loud and colourful mating displays for weeks - followed by a quiet pause. Then one day we saw Mrs. Flicker leave the nest with an egg in her beak, HER OWN EGG! She returned mere moments later and got the next, and the next five times that we saw.

This year we watched the mating dance and then the quiet time followed. I kept my camera at the ready and we watched the nest from our side window. Not all the time around the clock, but pretty regularly. One morning over breakfast Eliza saw the first egg being moved and exclaimed! I tossed down my plate and grabbed my camera. I knew i had to be discreet because I didn't want to risk startling them or interrupting this delicate process. I crouched behind a parked car and took a still shot first to make sure I got at least SOME proof. Mr. Flicker returned and I took 2 videos of the move. It was spectacular! So lucky that we caught it happening again!

Apparently this sort of behavior for cavity nesting creatures is really unprecedented. I am trying to get this information to a cavity nesting expert at UBC, but she hasn't called me back yet.

Northern Flicker Study

One of the best things about springtime, besides the warmer weather, the beautiful flowers and fresh buds, is the return of the migratory birds. This year Eliza and I were excited to see if our Northern Flickers would return to nest in the nest they carved into the dead limb of the otherwise healthy birch tree across the street.

2 females and 1 male rest between dances.

They had been coming to the nest for two years now, and we hoped they would return. We have never seen fledglings, but have seen their spectacular mating rituals, and last year we saw the oddest thing. They relocated their eggs to a hydro pole about a block away and we were lucky enough to see them do this.
Finally the showed up! This time two females and one male would do the courtship dance across the street. In the early mornings they would fly up to the railing of our friend's penthouse and hammer on their metal railing, then caw repeatedly with a devilish laugh.
I took pictures everyday and we watched them flash and jump around the birch, until exhausted they would all perch together until they started up again. Both the male and the females would take turns spending hours in the nest, feeding on the suet paddle I hung on my back porch and eating worms in the lawns down the street.

Mrs. Flicker landing on nest 1.

Now, you'd think after witnessing this kind of activity that I would describe a country setting as my place of residence, but I do not. I live in a very busy area of Vancouver, BC! Shoppers, delivery trucks, pedestrians, dogs, and lack of wilderness has not seemed to deter the Northern Flicker from finding solid digs.
For four weeks now, Eliza and I - and many observant passers by, have been seeing this noisy, brilliant orange ritual unfold. Three days ago, while enjoying our morning coffee, Eliza caught a glimpse of what we were hoping to see - they were relocating their eggs again!! I grabbed my camera and ran outside and crouched behind a parked car so I wouldn't interrupt this serious endeavour.
I took a still shot first! Got him leaving with the third egg, he flew west to the hydro pole behind our favorite restaurant, gleaming white egg pinched in his powerful beak. I refocused on the cavity in the birch and got him returning for the next one. He lands on the tree and caws loudly the same laugh he does after pecking the railing up at the penthouse, then quickly goes in the hole. Within moments his head emerges with another egg, and away he flies to the secondary nest.

The females dance!

We have researched this behavior for two years now, since we first noticed it. No information exists to suggest that this is commonplace. We took the video to Wild Birds Unlimited, and they were very excited to say the least!
We continue to watch the Flickers, and they continue to mate, and occupy the nest across the street in the birch tree, and seem to continually tend to the nest down the street where they moved the eggs to. They have blessed me with beautiful photographs, video and sounds. It is so exciting to me that these spectacular birds can be in our midst, and most people don't even notice them. It makes me wonder how much we miss when we don't take the time to be distracted by nature.