Woodpeckers???

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Yesterday and today I hiked up Mt. Tecumseh with the Boston Chapter's Winter Hiking Program. We saw a dead tree with a huge (18" vertical) gash drilled by something, my guess is some kind of woodpecker. There was a very large pile of chips at the bottom of the tree; that was what first attracted my attention before even seeing the hole.

This is the tree plus chips at the base, and this is a closeup of the hole.

Any comments on what made that hole???

Thanks.

 

[yellow dog]

Pileated woodpecker possibly?

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

Here's some more, and his pile of chips.

The above tree was spotted next to the L-W trail earlier this year. I don't know what kind of bird did it, but I'm going to play it safe and not mess with any of them.

 

[IndianChris]

yeah, Pileated.

 

[Sheomet]

Pileated woodpecker possibly?

That would be my guess too, very impressive birds.

 

[BorealChickadee]

Pileated, definitely.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

Absolutely Pileated.

Its like watching a jackhammer. How that tiny brain can withstand that pounding is truly amazing. Of course its not real large with little mass so that probably helps. Probably cushioned well also. Watching the chips that fly is really amazing.

Keith

 

[forestgnome]

The piliated probably got it started, but it like looks a bear did some work too. ICBWB I always interpret this as bear sign if I see scratch marks (from claws) inside the hole that are perpendicular to the trunk. I once watched a sow working a rotted beech just like this one. She was teaching her cubs to get insects. I wish I had studied the results to the tree more closely.

It also looks like there are gashes in the bark from when a bear climbed years ago looking for beech nuts. Nice pictures!

Happy Trails

 

[Grumpy]

That elongated hole is characteristic of the pileated woodpecker’s work. They are, as noted, amazing creatures. That excavation probably represents not more than a very few days’ effort for one bird, if that much.

G.

 

[sapblatt]

seen big holes from flickers as well, but not that big...I have seen Pileateds in the Whites - I beleive along the Liberty Springs Trail - they are very cool!

 

[Jazzbo]

I can top that .... I've seen forest service rangers dragging one out of the woods in hand cuffs. I think it was up on Zealand. He was muttering something about lousy views .....

Actually though .... I agree it was most likely the Pilieated Wood Pecker. Largest woodpecker in northeast. They are very characteristic birds. They are raven or crow sized birds. They have a large crested head ... they or one of their related species was the inspritation for Woody the Woodpecker. They make loudest pecking sound you'll ever hear in the forest. The holes they make are frequently low 3 to 4' off the ground like in Mohamed's picture. NHMTHIKER's picture of the high up hole is a bit atypical as I might expect from him. I've never seen one elongated like that. Forest Gnome is probably right about the bears adding to it. Most of holes I've seen were in Massachusetts where we don't have many bears.

Pileated Woodpecker webpage

 

[Woody]

Kids and a Trekking pole

I saw that hole last week when Alan and I climbed Tecumseh. We didn't recall seeing it on the way up but we saw it on the way down. There were a couple of young (18-20 yrs) hikers that got to the summit a bit behind us. My guess at the time was that they dug the hole in the rotted tree with a trekking pole. The grooves along the side of the hole seemed to be just about the same size as the ends of my trekking poles. We thought about woodpeckers but we would have expected the shavings at the bottom of the tree to be smaller if a woodpecker did the digging. I don't know much about birds, but it just looked like the work of humans to me. I think we would have noticed the hole and the shavings on our way up the trail if they had been there when we went by. We noticed it on our way out. I think the woodpecker was human.

Woody
(not a woodpecker )

 

[sleeping bear]

From my backyard-

Pileateds are definitely capable of making a hole that size, they're big birds.

 

[grog]

laughing at you

When they fly away they sound like they're laughing at you.

grog

 

[Dugan]

Definitely a Pileated. I can say with certainty that they will excavate elongated holes because I've seen them do so. The second link has a picture of one such hole, though it is not as extreme as in Mohommed's picture.

They'll work on both standing and fallen trees. I don't think the height is an objection either because I've seen them working as high as 30'. As for shaving size, if the tree was rotted, a Pileated can dig out large pieces very rapidly.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4050id.html
http://www.nhptv.org/Natureworks/pileatedwoodpecker.htm
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pileated_Woodpecker_dtl.html

 

[Woody]

I learn something new every day from this crowd!

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Saw the woodpecker today

On our way down from Tecumseh today my companion suddenly stopped. Looking ahead I saw a woodpecker in the big hole that I described at the start of this thread. As soon as we stopped we clearly heard him pecking away, and saw his head moving forwards and backwards. Fascinating sight!!

Unfortunately between the two of us we had nothing but a cell phone/camera for photographic equipment. The woodpecker was invisible in the picture taken from a distance, and as we approaced he flew away.

Made my day!

 

[Artex]

I dunno, could have been an ivory-billed woodpecker!

 

[peakn]

Definitely Pileated-
We once had one that used our 3rd floor window sill as a perch. He also drilled into our cedar siding rather destructively. Since they are protected, all we could do was to bother him until it wasn't worth his time to visit us anymore. The side benefit was that I learned how to repair cedar siding so that you couldn't tell they ever had those large holes.

 

[sardog1]

Pileated.

Just like the nesting pair that inhabits our lot annually. (One of them dropped a load at my feet the other day . . . )

And just like the one that drilled the fascia on our former house outside Seattle about fifteen years ago. I thought initially that someone had sprayed it with an automatic weapon. Good news, bad news in that. The good news is that you're not the target of random drive-by violence. Bad news -- the bird thinks your home is infested with carpenter ants. And he's right.