[obol] fledgling antics

[Darrel Faxon]

Obolites,
    Dave Iron's recounting of a juvenile hummingbird having trouble mastering the art of perching reminded me of another story.  I once found the nest of a Hairy Woodpecker about four and a half feet off the ground in an alder stub.  After the young hatched, I could hear them peeping from inside the nest cavity.  After they had been there for a while, one day I passed by with my brother-in-law.  By that time a couple of the young had already left the nest, but at least one nestling remained.  When my brother-in-law curiously put his eye up to the nest hole, it was too much for the remaining fledgling.  Out it came, and went about fifty feet in his maiden flight.  The flight was pretty good, but some difficulty occured with the landing gear.  When the bird attempted to land in the upright posture typical of woodpeckers, it failed to properly coordinate the timing  between feet, wings, and tail.  Rather than firmly gripping the side of the intended tree, it kind of bumped it chest first, and then, wings flapping and feet grasping, slid all the way to the ground like a fireman on a pole.  After a second or two in the brush, it came hirking its way back up the tree, chirping away in either a show of embarrassment or braggadacio.  I wasn't sure which (and, by way of disclaimer for those who can't stand anthrophomorphisms, or neither), but it surely was an amusing performance.

Darrel
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