Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 13:27:08 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: Woodpecker drumming MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What on earth is that strange noise reverberating through the house -- a ringing phone? a revving motorcycle? a pneumatic drill? No, it's Mr. Flicker posting his personals ad on the furnace vent's metal cap. Ah, yes, it's drumming season. According to the Birds of North America write-up, flickers can whack at a rate of nearly 25 times per second (!) to make that impressive BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR sound. (Compare that to Ruby-throated Hummingbirds' wingbeat rate of 53 per second.) How the heck do woodpeckers DO that, physiologically? When I think of muscles that vertebrates can voluntarily move at the rate of many times per second, wings (e.g., hummers) and vocal cords (e.g., humming) come to mind, not necks. Anybody out there know more about this capability, or about other animals with similar skills? Janet Millenson Potomac, MD (Montgomery County) janet@twocrows.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================