Last summer Helen and I found a tree pastb the hay field where a large section of bark had been perforated by a number of fairly regularly spaced retangular wounds. We had no idea what had done this. This year we encountered a fairly secretive bird while walking the dogs, it was always in the same grouping of a few poplars and some willows. We finally saw it was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. We also realized it had created the same type of scars, called a sap well on one of the treees Further reading indicated that it defended these wells against other birds including Hummingbirds. A few days later we noticed Waxwings were at the wells and sure enough the Sapsucker appeared. We have often seen Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, every year the young inspect a dead tree next to the porch. But this is the first time we have seen a we have seen a sap well near the cabin.
More photos of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker here.
"Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches —"
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches —"
from Morning Poem
by Mary Oliver
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