Habitat

My journey into the gully began with a visit to The Pool of Tranquility. If you have been reading my blog since last fall, then you know that The Pool of Tranquility is the lofty name we have given to a water feature that Jeff built out of an existing spring.  The Pool is a nice place to sit and read, meditate or just listen to a songbird serenade.

Right now there was no time for sitting.  I had places to go and nature to see.

I found a tree with a couple great pileated woodpecker holes.  It was surprising at first because the tree looked perfectly heathy except for the gaping holes in its side.  Once I took the time to turn my head straight up, I could see, though, that the there was dead wood at the very top of the main trunk.  Bugs had moved in to colonize the tree. I walked on down the hill a few feet then looked back at the tree. 

It was then that I realized the extent of the damage. The other side of the tree was completely riddled with woodpecker holes.

This segregated ecosystem is home to trees in various states of decay. One long-ago broken stump gave me the opportunity to see what morning may have looked like from a nest inside the tree. It was probably a cozy place to be hatched and fledged. A home with cool dark walls providing some protection from the elements but also with a nice view.

 I've always felt lucky to have so many pileated and other wood peckers around our home, but this is a case where luck is not the main determining factor.  The woods surrounding our home are diverse with all species of trees.  Many, like this one have been left in place to mature as nature wills it, some dying young while some lift to be huged gnarled specimens. Both provide life, as nesting sights, or as bug food which, in turn, provide good pickings for the woodpeckers.  The sky around our home recently has been the flyway for many woodpeckers as they make their way across open spaces between woodlots where they are harvesting bugs. 

As I made my way down the hill, some spots were steeper than others making me glad for the numerous grape vines that hung from high branches. It was not quite tarzan-esque but I did make use of the vines to keep from tumbling perhaps to my death or at the very least to a muddy bottom. (mine). The tangle of vines and fallen branches are a great combination for songbirds who need plentiful perches from which to seek out seeds and insects close to the ground.  The damp thick leaf litter harbors a multitude of life forms from mice to worms to insects and other bugs. 

The scratching of a towhee or the constant peck-peck-pecking of a downie woodpecker are a pleasant backdrop of sound as I countinue my outing.  I look forward to discoveries that await.

Pileated Woodpecker

"THUMP! THUMP!"
"THUMP!"

Was somebody building something nearby? Surely not.  It sounded too close. I stood very still and searched, slowly closing in on the sound, one step at a time.  I had an idea what I would find if I advanced carefully. Then there it was.  A pileated woodpecker was turning the dead trunk of a poplar tree into mulch.  Pieces were sent flying in all directions as the woodpecker searched for bugs.  Every now and then a delectible morsel was found allowing the bird to pause and eat but only for a moment then it was back to work. 

The drumming rang out through the trees as the hammering continued as the woodpecker lived up to its name riddling the old trunk with holes returning the wood to the earth that had nurtured it for so many years. 

The bird contorted its neck, twisting it to reach the long thin bill deep into holes to extract bugs We all know the pileated as the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker but this bird was serious about its work, seemingly oblivious to the human slowly closing in.

I was glad that the trunk had been left to slowly be eaten by the bugs, then birds.  This small bit of conservation gave me a nice "Wow" moment.  I took some photographs to share here and to prompt my memory of the meal.  Not wanting to disturb the bird too much I left it there using its powerful head to propel its long thin bill into the bug-ridden wood.

As I returned to the house, a red-tail hawk was flying out of the front yard, attempting her own meal a bit higher up on the food chain.  She was beautiful, her deep umber tail feathers making a fine show as she flew to a tree.  She perched there, turned around then watched.  I was sure she was hurtling unkind thoughts at me for interrupting her meal. There she sat as she watched the bird feeder a few moments moments more then flew off to easier pickings.

Sumac Berry Feast

Cleared grass fields are beautiful with their great expanse of green in early summer then drying to brown hay as the grass matures through the summer.  The grass seeds are nice for birds, mice and other small animals and for the larger animals that eat them but the border areas where the hay fields becomes woods is interesting too. Here the grass is joined with brush, bush and small trees, becoming food and shelter to numerous animals and birds.  Border areas are especially needed in winter when food is scarce elsewhere. These border areas are where birds will likely find wild rose bushes, sumac, grape vines and other food sources during the winter.

I noticed a particular sumac tree that became local fast-food restaraunt for several birds during a time when our ground was covered with snow. My eyes followed a pileated woodpecker as it flew overhead then landed in the sumac.  Branches bounced under the bird's weight. Ready to investigate, I stepped off the road to walk across the snow covered field.  Drawing closer, I could see blue jays and other birds flying to and from the tree. 

Another pileated woodpecker alighted on a nearby tree before making its way to the sumac

Each time I moved forward the woodpeckers would leave the sumac, quickly returning once I stood still. those berries were too hard to resist.  Hanging on looked precarious as this one below fell around the branch, its tail feathers splaying out for balance.

The flickers wanted their share of the sumac berries.

At one point there were three flickers and two pileated woodpeckers on that one sumac.  They would not all hold still at once.  My camera and I may have made them nervous.

While watching, a decision was made.  I needed to plant save a few seeds from this plant for my own garden.  Its berries were a nice addition to the winter landscape, redder than many types of sumac,

 

This tree will soon be wearing a ribbon to protect it from next spring's chainsaw and bumps from the tracter.