{"id":397,"date":"2013-01-24T03:18:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T03:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=397"},"modified":"2013-01-24T03:18:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T03:18:48","slug":"a-common-redpoll-in-my-sweet-gum-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"A Common Redpoll in my Sweet Gum Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Edie Parnum<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On a damp, cloudy day in December I took a break from my household chores to get some fresh air on my back deck.\u00a0 As usual I looked around for bird activity.\u00a0 Recently I\u2019d been seeing birds eating the ripe seeds in the Sweet Gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua),<\/i> so I wasn\u2019t surprised to see a feeding flock there. The light was dim, so I rushed back inside to retrieve my binoculars.\u00a0 I was pleased to spot my target species, a Pine Siskin, among the expected goldfinches. Then, I noticed an odd-looking bird.\u00a0 It was small and streaky like a siskin, but it had black around the base of the bill.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It was a female Common Redpoll.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo of a Common Redpoll<\/a> courtesy of Jacob Spendelow<\/p><\/div>\n

Normally we don\u2019t see redpolls in the Delaware Valley. They are circumpolar denizens of the arctic tundra and boreal forest.\u00a0 In northern Canada and Alaska, they feed on alders, birches, willows, and spruces. However, because the seed crop was poor this year, these birds are roaming southward in search of food.\u00a0 Birders have also spotted other northern species like Pine Siskins, Red Crossbills, White-winged Crossbills, and Evening Grosbeaks that have wandered south to find food.\u00a0\u00a0 Ornithologists call this phenomenon an irruption.\u00a0 Some of these northern birds, including redpolls, have been showing up at area feeders.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Sweet Gum Ball. Photo \u00a9 Edie Parnum<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

In 1996, another irruption year, I hosted four Common Redpolls at my thistle feeder.\u00a0 Redpolls are small finches slightly bigger than goldfinches.\u00a0 They have brown streaks on their flanks and back, white wing bars, a small red cap (called a poll), and the aforementioned black around the bill.\u00a0 The male has a rosy-pink wash across its breast.\u00a0 With their strong claws they can easily hold onto small twigs and sometimes hang upside down acrobatically to reach the dangling sweet gum balls.\u00a0 With their tiny, pointy beaks they can easily reach into the cavities of the Sweet Gum balls to extract the small seeds.<\/p>\n

My Sweet Gum nourishes many wild creatures, not just redpolls, goldfinches, and siskins. I regularly see Dark-eyed Juncos, House Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds
\nand sometimes Golden-crowned Kinglets and Purple Finches devouring the seeds.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard reports of\u00a0 White-winged and Red Crossbills eating Sweet Gum seeds, too. When the seeds are ripe I enjoy standing under the tree as the seeds rain down copiously around me.\u00a0 Sparrows and Mourning Doves relish the wind-dispersed seeds they find on the ground, the driveway, and the roof.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-bellied<\/a>

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Photo \u00a9 Gerry Dewaghe http:\/\/www.pbase.com\/gdewaghe<\/p><\/div>\n

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, cold weather visitors from the north, hammer holes in the bark and drink the sap. Thirty-three species of native caterpillars including the Luna Moth, a declining species, eat the foliage.<\/p>\n

\"Holes<\/a>

Holes drilled by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Edie’s Sweet Gum tree. Photo \u00a9 Edie Parnum.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Sweet<\/a><\/dt>\n
Sweet Gum tree in fall<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plant a Sweet Gum in your yard.\u00a0 It\u2019s a handsome tree in all seasons.\u00a0 In the fall, it is spectacularly adorned with shiny red, orange, and yellow leaves. True, the prickly, woody balls fall to the ground well after leaves have been raked in the fall and, thus, require an untimely extra clean-up.\u00a0 Personally, I like these odd, somewhat monstrous-looking fruits.\u00a0 As I child I used them for making Christmas ornaments.\u00a0 To my way of thinking, a Sweet Gum tree is well worth planting for the chance to host caterpillars and birds like redpolls and sapsuckers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Edie Parnum On a damp, cloudy day in December I took a break from my household chores to get some fresh air on my back deck.\u00a0 As usual I looked around for bird activity.\u00a0 Recently I\u2019d been seeing birds … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}