Nov., 1910 
BIRD NOTES FROM SOUTHWESTERN MONTANA 
201 
The scarcity of squirrels is in turn probably caused by the lack of trees large 
enuf to furnish the seed these animals depend upon for winter food supply. 
Only a few of the nests near this camp were in good positions to obtain photo- 
graphs, but these few were quite near camp so that little of my limited time was 
lost, going and coming. In back of the stump containing the bird-flat, was a 
large boulder which assisted in bringing the camera on a level with the Sapsucker’s 
nest. This nest evidently contained eggs. The birds took turns at incubation and 
changed places frequently, but they were very wary of the camera and of me, so I 
gave it up until a Sunday, when there was plenty of time. 
On Saturday evening I went to the nest and set up a dummy camera, made of 
my tripod and camera case, leaving it over night to get the birds camera broke”, 
as one of my friends exprest it. The next morning I set up the real camera, and 
with the canvas cover of my bed-roll constructed a blind in a corner between two 
convenient boulders, connecting the blind and camera by a thred. Waiting here 
was not at all tiresome, for the Chickadees up stairs were feeding their young fre- 
quently and furnisht considerable enter- 
tainment. The male Sapsucker soon ap- 
peared to change places with his mate. 
The blind and camera made little differ- 
ence to him and I soon had my first pic- 
ture. I took several pictures that morn- 
ing with little trouble except that I had 
to leave the blind each time to change the 
film. The birds changed places regu- 
larly about once in half an hour. I had 
some difficulty in distinguishing the two 
birds, for the only mark of difference I 
could discern was a small patch of white 
on the chin and upper throat of the 
female, while the entire throat of the 
male was deep red. 
When leaving the nest to fly to a near- 
by tree, the birds often indulged in a Fig. 69. mountain chickadee with food 
peculiar flight entirely different from the for young, showing four poses 
usual one. In this flight the bird rises in 
the air and hovers and flutters in a curious way. There was something familiar 
about it, as tho I had watcht it many times before. Finally as I was pondering 
this, a Solitaire rose in flight-song on the other side of the gulch and then I real- 
ized what it was. This flight of the woodpecker was the same as a song-flight in 
every way. The arch of the shoulders, the trembling of the wings, and the manner 
of spreading the tail were exactly the same; and the familiarity was caused by this 
flight combined with the black and white markings which made the bird, from 
where I viewed it, resemble a male Bobolink. 
.On the opposite side of camp from this nest was a thick grove of aspen, and 
here one day I discovered a Sapsucker, probably one of the same pair, engaged in 
drinking sap from the aspens. Series of holes had been drilled into numbers of 
these aspens, usually near the top of the tree where the diameter was but an inch 
or two. The holes here were all fresh, but not far away I found more aspens, 
alders and willows that had been drilled, some of them apparently a good many 
years ago. I believe that these birds could hardly be considered very destructive 
in Montana, for the trees they attack are all small ones and of very little value. 
