Your friend may want to keep an eye on the nest.  Red-shoulders, that
are so noisy when establishing a nest, can really quiet down and seem to
vanish when they have young in the nest - which can happen anytime now.

Rob Gibbs
Damascus, MD

Laura M. Appelbaum wrote:

>Unfortunately, my friend reports the Red-shoulders appear to have
>abandoned their nest in his back yard.  OTHO, this morning around 11:00
>I was working on my front yard landscaping and witnessed two Hairy
>Woodpeckers courting one another.  No actual copulation this time, but
>lots of head bobbing and simultaneous wing flapping while sitting on a
>branch together.  Later, around 4:00 PM, I was in the backyard with some
>friends when we saw a Hairy (presumably the male from the morning),
>wailing the heck out of the dogwood tree in my side yard (I only hope
>the tree can survive the damage, given the precarious state of native
>dogwoods).  On close inspection, the hole, which is a mere 4' or less
>from the ground, is big enough for me to put my thumb in past the
>knuckle -- about an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half deep, and
>with a three-inch circumferance.  I wish he'd picked just about any
>other tree in which to build his nest, but now that he's chosen, all I
>can do is watch the further progress and hope a viable brood at least
>comes out of it.
>
>Laura Appelbaum,
>Cloverly, MD
>
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