North Carolina has 96 Important Bird Areas across the state that support wildlife in very special ways while offering a recreational playground for birds and people alike. In this special blog series, each of Audubon North Carolina’s 10 chapters will take a walk through their IBAs to give readers a glimpse of what can be enjoyed in our own neighborhood.
Please welcome back guest-blogger and member of the New Hope Audubon Chapter, Maria de Bruyn. After finding a family of Brown-headed Nuthatches during her visit to the Jordan Lake IBA, she has returned to see how they're doing.
“The B. Everett Jordan Dam and Lake is located in central North Carolina, with much of the state’s human population living within a 120 km (75 miles) radius of the project. The Jordan Lake Project preserves thousands of hectares of natural lands in the midst of an expanding urban area. Of this total, 4,239 ha (10,475 acres) have been flooded to form the lake, and 10,025 ha (24,772 acres) are being managed for recreation and wildlife management.” –National Audubon Society
Last weekend, when walking the woods along Jordan Lake in order to write a blog for the NC Audubon Society, I happened upon a thin dead tree standing in the water at the shore’s edge. Just then as I was looking it up and down, a Brown-headed Nuthatch flew and made its way down the trunk to a hole where it obviously had a nest. That was a treat, and I watched the mom and dad fly to and fro with provisions for the brood.
Yesterday, I decided to return and see if the industrious pair was still working on meals for their brood. They were indeed, and I watched for quite a long time, wondering how they could see anything down in the nest where it has to be pretty dark.
These lovely little birds are native to the Southeastern US and there is a small population in the Bahamas; they don’t live in any other countries so they really are kind of special. In addition, since 1966, the population has declined by 45% because they are losing nesting habitats (dead and pine trees) to deforestation and urbanization.
The parents were most often alternating their meal runs, but occasionally they would arrive simultaneously or very close in time. They would usually alight on the trunk above the nest hole and then work their way down – they can descend head-first, which is a handy trait.
Occasionally, though, they would alight right by the hole or work their way upwards from a little further down the tree trunk. They seemed very concentrated on their task but I learned that they were definitely keeping an eye on me because when I took up a position a bit closer to the tree for some better shots, they just hopped about in other trees waiting for me to step back again. Which I did, of course.
Though I didn’t witness it, these small birds are tool-users, sometimes using a piece of bark to pry up tree bark in search of insects; they may even carry the tool with them. They certainly were bringing their babies varied meals, including moth caterpillars and insects of various kinds.
These parents were fastidious, too, removing fecal sacs from the nest with some regularity. I had hoped to see these birds in action when using a nuthatch nest box I put up in my yard, but a pair of Carolina Chickadees are currently raising a brood there.
The nestlings fledge after about 18 days so I may be too late to see anything when I return sometime this coming week, but it sure would be cool to see them leave the nest!
Maria de Bruyn is a wildlife photographer who works freelance on human rights, gender and health. Visit Maria's blog to see more of her birding adventures.
