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Thanksgiving Day at home



      Today was a good day to stay at home, eat too much, do some 
online Christmas shopping, and watch the backyard for birds.  I saw 
all of the regulars except Carolina wrens, but I've seen one here 
within the last week, so they are around.
      Over the summer a couple of trees disappeared from the 
neighborhood.  One was a favorite of our wintering sapsucker (male, 
third winter for possibly the same bird).  Another was a dead bole 
(which could have fallen on a house) that was riddled with woodpecker 
holes.  The sapsucker had already shown some interest in one of the 
two scrub oaks in my backyard and he's become a regular on it.  As a 
result, I'm seeing more yellow-rumped warblers and at least one 
ruby-crowned kinglet that seem to be looking for insects drawn by the 
sapsucker's drilling.
      The scrub oak isn't tall enough to threaten the house. If it 
were to die, I'd leave the main trunk standing and probably use it to 
support a flowering vine of some kind.

Bob
-- 
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Robert C. Perkins, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC 28311
910-630-7037     rperkins@methodist.edu