Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 63

According to a field note Wilhelm
wrote in the Pennsylvania Society
for Ornithology newsletter, a pair of
red-breasted nuthatches nested in his
Butler County black spruce woodlot
for three consecutive years from 2011
to 2013, then disappeared until early
last fall.
That's when Wilhelm also had close
encounters with a pair of red-breasted
nuthatches.
Sitting outside, "the male bird
landed 2 feet from my mobile TV
tray, snatched a stink bug from our
porch screen door, carried it in his bill
to a limb of a red maple less than 10
feet above my head, ate the bug, then
repeated the antic 10 times in the next
10 minutes. At that point, a female
nuthatch dropped to the ground next
to the screen door and helped herself
to an easy meal, too."
That day they made 21 round
trips in a half-hour and ate 42 stink
bugs. And they returned for six more
afternoons, making at least 89 round
trips and eating more than 100 stink
bugs in three hours.
Red-breasted nuthatches migrate
through Pennsylvania from the second
week in April to the third week in
May, but those that stay to breed begin
courting as early as March.
The male sings his courtship
song while turning his back to the
female, swaying back and forth like a
revolving fan and puffing up his crest
feathers. The pair also flies together
with slowly fluttering wings or long
glides.
Both sexes excavate a nest hole 2½
to 8 inches deep in soft aspens, dead
or dead parts of trees. They line their
NOVEMBER 2017	

nest with fur, feathers, grass, hair and
shredded bark. The female in May lays
five to eight whitish, speckled reddishbrown eggs.
The pair also applies sticky conifer
resin at the outside and inner walls
of the cavity entrance. They bring in
resin globules from other conifers
in the tips of their bills or on a small
piece of bark which they use as a tool
to apply the resin.
Throughout the 12-day incubation
and 18-day nestling periods, they
do this as often as five to 10 times a
day. It seems to be a deterrent for nest
predators, such as house wrens, red
squirrels, snakes, weasels and even
ants, but the parents avoid the resin by
flying directly into and out of the nest
hole.
The male feeds the female during
her incubation period, both on and
off the nest and while she broods the
hatchlings.
Both parents feed their offspring in
the nest, and for two weeks or longer
after they fledge in late June or early
July.
The young birds may join their
parents in mixed species flocks of
resident birds and stay together as
a family, being they have only one
brood a year.
If it's an irruption year, they
might head south as early as the first
week in August, although their peak
migration period is between the third
week in September and third week in
November.
Because they irrupt every two to
three years, I doubt I will see any in
our spruce grove this winter.
But I will forever remember 201617 as my winter with the red-breasted
nuthatches.
63



Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017

Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Intro
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 48
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 52
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 56
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2017 - Cover4
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