Day 17 Whatever Will They Eat

Cold, in the teens, and overcast. Little wind. 1.6 miles Gray Road from Winslow Farm to Smith Farm. Well, at least there were some birds today. One nice winter feeding flock with chickadees, both nuthatches and titmouse, but no downy. Responded immediately to phishing. The highlight was a flock of 20 robins feeding on crabapples at Smith farm. it got me noticing what is left of winter food for frugivores. The crabapples were more than half gone, and some of the sumac was missing fruiting spikes completely. I also saw a bit of bittersweet. So it got me to looking at sumac more closely.

This is staghorn sumac, so named because of the velvety appearing pubescence on the stems, like antlers on deer. It was interesting to see some heads mostly eaten still retaining their infrastructure. A little research told me that the robins had some competition for this food source. Ring-necked pheasant, bobwhite quail, wild turkey, and about 300 species of songbirds include sumac fruit in their diet. It is also known to be important only in the winter diets of ruffed grouse and the sharp-tailed grouse. Fox squirrels and cottontail rabbits eat sumac bark. White-tail deer like the fruit and stems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHn4OoZqEr4 This is an awesome video about sumac ID by Andrew Conboy.

Posted on February 14, 2021 08:52 PM by