Tussocks & Grass Tufts
- Date: 2010-07-23 - Word Count: 401
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In seeking disguise for a home what is more natural than that the creeper, modest caretaker of the tree trunks, should have found that the bark itself lends invisibility. This bird's nest is almost invariably hidden under the warp or curl of a loosened section. In the South many a banner of Spanish moss, bearding mysterious cypress swamps, timbered bottom lands and upland hammocks, conceals the home of a southern parula warbler. A simple nest-floor, built within the mass of a pendant streamer, sets a pair up to housekeeping. The limits of the Spanish moss country accurately define their breeding range. Field dwellers, like the meadow larks, arch the surrounding grass stems to shield their lowly abodes.
On arid deserts nesting red-tailed hawks find the spiny column of the sahuaro a secure substitute for stream-side or forest tree. This cactus shows flicker or woodpecker nest holes. Tussocks and grass tufts, artfully taken advantage of deceive countless hostile eyes. Juncos and sparrows know this camouflage trick well. Such rudimentary cover is the sole reliance of innumerable breeding waterfowl.
The ovenbird's nest on the forest floor is seldom discovered save by accidentally flushing his brooding mate. Cleverly screened with dead leaves it almost defies detection. Not a few species depend wholly upon natural disguise, dispensing entirely with nest accumulations. In this the shore birds are pre-eminent. The sand, shells and pebbles of the beach provide vast reaches where oyster catcher, plover and sandpiper, together with skimmer and tern, deposit their eggs and trust to Nature's concealing colours.
Safety in numbers is an axiom not lost upon feathered folk, and many are aware that cooperation in nest construction has its rewards. We are familiar with the gregarious habits of nesting martins, cliff and bank swallows, red-wings, herons, cormorants and others. Yet, among colonists, the social weavers of South Africa are unique. These friendly builders not only gather in the same vicinity, but also construct a common roof for their dwellings. Working together in the branches of a giraffe thorn, they provide for themselves the typical shelter of inhabitants of the near tropics-a grass roof.
Cartloads of the building material are used, and the communal, mushroom-shaped structure gives the impression of the tree having grown up through a native hut, lifting the roof with it. Individual nests are then hung in rows beneath. More than three hundred "rooms" have been counted in such an apartment house.
On arid deserts nesting red-tailed hawks find the spiny column of the sahuaro a secure substitute for stream-side or forest tree. This cactus shows flicker or woodpecker nest holes. Tussocks and grass tufts, artfully taken advantage of deceive countless hostile eyes. Juncos and sparrows know this camouflage trick well. Such rudimentary cover is the sole reliance of innumerable breeding waterfowl.
The ovenbird's nest on the forest floor is seldom discovered save by accidentally flushing his brooding mate. Cleverly screened with dead leaves it almost defies detection. Not a few species depend wholly upon natural disguise, dispensing entirely with nest accumulations. In this the shore birds are pre-eminent. The sand, shells and pebbles of the beach provide vast reaches where oyster catcher, plover and sandpiper, together with skimmer and tern, deposit their eggs and trust to Nature's concealing colours.
Safety in numbers is an axiom not lost upon feathered folk, and many are aware that cooperation in nest construction has its rewards. We are familiar with the gregarious habits of nesting martins, cliff and bank swallows, red-wings, herons, cormorants and others. Yet, among colonists, the social weavers of South Africa are unique. These friendly builders not only gather in the same vicinity, but also construct a common roof for their dwellings. Working together in the branches of a giraffe thorn, they provide for themselves the typical shelter of inhabitants of the near tropics-a grass roof.
Cartloads of the building material are used, and the communal, mushroom-shaped structure gives the impression of the tree having grown up through a native hut, lifting the roof with it. Individual nests are then hung in rows beneath. More than three hundred "rooms" have been counted in such an apartment house.
Related Tags: grass tufts, woodpecker nest, nest holes, grass stems, woodpecker nest holes, grass roof
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