Let it Stand, for Wildlife on Tuesday, April 26, 2011

We don't always notice our yard naturescaping making a difference, but this was spectacular proof to me of the value of standing dead trees . . .

Article and Photographs by Steve Berliner

    I had gone halves with my neighbor on topping two dead Poplars in 2010, if they would let me leave 20-30 ft. of standing habitat snag.  Just on their side of our fence, one large limb-fall had already taken out a whole section of my picket fence, so I felt it was time to act.  We’ve lived along Kellogg Creek in Milwaukie, Oregon for 20 years now, and they were here perhaps 30 years before that.  They are good to the natural creek area, leaving lots of wild places in the yard, and they obliged me.
    Today, I was doing a long overdue mowing in back, and while dumping a catcher of grass I looked up and there was a Red-breasted Sapsucker in the Poplar snag oriented perfectly toward our yard as if to reward me, a bird photographer, for leaving some habitat.  I was only about 30 feet from the bird which was around 15 or so feet up the trunk building a perfectly round nest cavity.  Here you can see a wood chip in its bill.  The hole was already several inches deep and the inside excavation proceeded quietly, to my hearing.  The bird would work for about a half hour, then go somewhere on break, and return for another long session.  Some Sapsuckers excavate nest cavities a season or more in advance of moving in, and amazingly the “endangered” Red-cockaded Woodpecker of the eastern U.S. does this two years in advance and then moves in for up to 20 years!
    I await a Sapsucker family with great anticipation.. and guess who gets to photograph their lifestyles!  The young with their heads popping outside to receive incoming food is a photographer’s delight.

    Below is a new photo with wood chips floating down. The female carried out a bill-full of chips from the back of the opening and then tossed them away from her.