We saw the oddest thing a couple of days ago when John was playing on the swingset. There was a downy woodpecker ( Picoides pubescens) hanging nearly upside down eating the apples on the the ‘Hazen’ apple tree. Since this is the first year that looks promising for the apple crop, I was less than thrilled to see it pecking away at the fruit, although I have to admit I was equally fascinated and wondered what the little guy was doing.

After positively identifying that it was a downy woodpecker instead of a hairy woodpecker (which is a bigger bird), I did a little research on what they eat and why it might be pecking away at my apples. Sure enough, from what I’ve read they have a sweet spot for the fruit. And they’re not the only ones. It looks like cedar waxwings, Eastern bluebirds, grosbeaks, tufted titmouse, and and even ruby-throated hummingbird are all species that will eat apples, along with other fruit.

It’s eating my apples!

I kept trying to get closer and closer to the woodpecker to get a better photo with my 100 mm lens, and when it finally flew away we could walk up to see what it was eating. There were a couple of apples with deep brown holes in the them. I wonder if the woodpecker was gaining a bonus of a worm in the apple knocking out two food groups with one visit.

Besides hitting the apple trees, we are having a very difficult time keeping up with harvesting the chokecherries, of all things, before the robins get them. We have a very large bush in our fruit yard that was absolutely loaded with them, but it is stripped down past half the amount by now. It’s way too big to throw any sort of netting over it, so I’m not sure what might be the best way to salvage enough for ourselves. The smaller trees in the backyard (that don’t receive as much water so they don’t grow as well) are ripening later, and we have to be diligent to harvest them soon. If not, there will be no jelly for us this year.

Two Factions Emerge

The other tree that the birds are targeting are the American plums. It seems it went from, “Oh look, there are little plums!” to “Where did the plums go?” They’re not even close to being ripe, but something is eating them, and my best guess is it’s the birds. I need to toss over bird netting or the lightest floating row cover I have in order to save a few for canning this fall. The American plums, which are a small, native variety, make the best jelly, as well. As a matter of fact, everything the birds are eating are my jelly fruits! I really need to get on the ball or it’s going to be a winter with a lot of dry toast.