I was out at the arboretum Saturday morning and there were lots of birds along the river trail. The first birds I noticed were dark-eyed juncos. They were hopping about through the limbs of the tree canopy gleaning insects off the limbs and trunks of mostly the Oregon ash trees. I went over to investigate what they were eating and found heaps of woolly aphids resting and waiting for the sun to come out to warm things up. As I stood there watching them forage and chase each other around, I noticed more birds were also gleaning the woolly aphids. There were chickadees, brown creepers, white-breasted nuthatches. a downy woodpecker, a Hutton’s vireo, a hermit thrush, golden-crowned kinglets, ruby-crowned kinglets, and bushtits. The roles had been reversed from the snow globe of aphids swirling all around me, Now there was a flurry of birds excitedly flitting around me as they gleaned aphids off the trees. Based on the number of birds in the area foraging, I would conclude that aphids are an important source of food for birds this time of year. I’m glad there are so many aphids, because I imagine that it takes heaps of aphids to fill an empty stomach.
I hope you are enjoying the nice weather and fall colors. I love this time of year. I’ll see you out there.
