What on earth???, you may wonder, if you're not familiar with such a sight as this...
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| click on photos to enlarge and why???you may ask, for these holes in the trees are deep. |
Why?, a hole in a tree of this size and leaving behind such a pile of sawdust? ~ what is going on here?
It sure wasn't this little fella, our friend Hairy! nor~
Downy, or have I mixed their names up? Mel will know.
BUT~~~
a fella near this size, sure could create some havoc to a tree.
The Pileated Woodpecker can saw some pretty deep holes in the trees in search of succulent worms and wood-boring insects.
It doesn't take long, and the insects lay their eggs and the circle begins, continues, and ends finally, when the tree dies. That's when the woodpeckers do their part, by going after a meal of grubs until a pile of sawdust lays at the base of the trees.
You will know a pileated woodpecker is in the area. You will most likely ' hear ' him long before you see him. Watch for him, for, you will not believe how large they are. ( the one you see in the tree by my garden, is a wooden one my Dad made many yrs. ago, but the real thing is about half that size, none the less, BIG. )
We now know that the triple spruce trees at the end of our driveway will have to come down. The insects and the Pileated have done their job and the sawdust pile and the holes in the first 2 pictures are from those particular trees. So goes the cycle of life of three more trees. Nothing is totally lost, for the trees will either become firewood, compost or lumber....waste not~
So it goes up here where the wind blows cold tonight, so
as I warm my feet with wood heat,
I feel fortune has fallen once again. It's the little things that
\o/
/\
Warm My Soul
9 comments:
I always knew the Wood Pecker done a lot of pecking, but never knew one could kill a tree, any woodpecker.
If one goes to the North Woods they will learn something....
Thanks for the entertainment as well as an education.
I have seen the pattern around a tree, never thought much about it.
Do they ever do a lot of damage to a house there? I saw some in my back yard on a telephone pole recently. I think there were some young ones.
re: Jack, it's the insects that the woodpeckers are after, that actually kill the tree...
re: Paula, even tho the woodpeckers may peck on a house or two, it usually is that they are storing seed in any crack they can find. I've always wondered if they can recall just 'where' they store their seeds.
Oh I LOVE seeing this in the bush. B
Awe.....so sad that the tree eventually dies. I've seen several woodpeckers out back, but they do not make the big holes like this. I can definitely hear them when they start pecking. With the size of these holes being what they are, I just knew that it was going to be some kind of sap hole....wasn't expecting a woodpecker to have done this much damage...
Have yourself a fabulous day...
shug
For a summer we had a woodpecker that made such a racket. Oh my then we started seeing the damage. Our neighbor had the tree cut down and huge black ants were abundant. They came in our house. We had such a hard time getting rid of them. They should have left the woodpecker continue to feed and saw on the tree. Keep warm.
Indeed. When you hear them call in the deep woods you might think your in the jungle. And the tapping reverberates throughout. We see them only rarely in our little woods but a nearby State Park (Forestville) has many....:)
That looked like sticky work for the woodpecker. I appreciate that you appreciate that to everything there is a season. A good post.
Gosh the pileated woodpeckers are very pretty to me - BUT they did a lot of damage to our deck! lol Not happy.
sandie
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