Don,
If you had not mentioned it, I would never have suspected that a bird could be capable of doing this kind of damage to a tree. I also had no idea that the pileated woodpecker was as large as it is. I was thinking in terms of the flickers I see around my place, but the descriptions Iíve read compare the pileated to a crow in size. Obviously, Iíve never seen one, but Iím definitely going to keep my eyes open for them in my future treks in the woods. A friend of mine who lives on wooded acreage near Eugene has seen them and sent me this note:
ìWe have occasionally seen them on our property so have witnessed their work firsthand. Not only can they really go to work on a tree they are pretty raucous (think Woody Woodpecker the cartoon). The trees they have attacked on our property have been snags of Ponderosa Pine that were somewhat punky to start and they have carved large rectangles out of the trunk similar to the one shown near the top of the damage area on the picture. Several times (once several weeks ago) I actually had an opportunity to watch the bird at work and it really went to town. There were chunks of wood flying everywhere."
I guess I was naÔve in assuming that a bear would have caused that damage. I saw those two vertical strips and immediately envisioned a bear standing on its hind legs scraping the tree with its two front paws. From what Iíve learned since then, a bear is more likely to damage a young and healthy tree, tearing off the outer bark to get at the sap flowing in the springtime. It is not unusual for a bear to completely girdle and thus kill a tree.
Itís good to know that Iím not too old to learn something new. And I find the idea of a woodpecker ìgoing to townî on this tree a lot more interesting than my bear theory. Thanks for setting me straight on this.
