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Posted by Paul-the-other on 23:09:42 06/05/06
A hot and quiet day in the Park. Anhinga trail was bereft of any moving birds just many empty nests, the deep staccato grunts of the bull frogs, the buzz of countless bees and the zooming of the horse flies/deerflies. The only-eight people there moved very slowly matching the tempo of the glades. In the distance towering cumulus clouds built into thunderstorms but there was no suggestion let alone promise of rain.
At Pineland we witnessed a red bellied woodpecker getting too close to a nest of the brown nuthatch. The commotion was noticeable in the simmering heat. At 93 degrees it just seemed too hot to quarrel. But then I wasn't the pair of nuthatches guarding their nest. Soon three more nuthatches appeared and it was a regular flying circus of aerial combat. A second woodpecker appeared but stood off by 10 yards. The battle settled into a cold war of sorts with the woodpecker about ten feet off the cavity and not moving. The Nuthatches were dispersed around the tree most hanging upside down.
No winners no losers in the battle. Just birds doing what they were created to do. I remembered, as I sat there for thirty minutes watching the event unfold, all the trips I have made to this PArk and these pines now bent by Wilma into a bow they will hold for their lifetime. So many trips, over so much time, and I walked among the countless members of the "Other Nations". Just a flood of memories on a hot noon-day...and a couple of nuthatches thoroughly irritated by two red-bellied woodpeckers. I'm sure there is some profound meaning in the event other then there was a large number of nuthatches in one place. But being too hot and thirsty to think too much on such things I adjourned to Robert-Is Here to get a milkshake. But first I stopped and reported the nest site at the research center. Funny thing...Gary Slater and Sonny Bass were more interested in the nuthatches than the milkshake.
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