I was really surprised when I saw this hole chiseled into a large Eastern Red Cedar. The red interior wood of a cedar us quite hard and is rather difficult to chop into. It’s obviously the work of one of the Pileated Woodpeckers that frequent this woods. That red wood is full of the fragrant oils that do such a wonderful job of repelling wood boring insects, so it’s hard to imagine anything edible living in there. I’ve never seen woodpeckers attack a live cedar and this fact caused me to keep looking around to see if I could come up with some other explanation for the hole.
Cedars often develop deep furrows in the trunk that can grow closed to leave a vertical shaft isolated within the tree. That’s what seems to have happened here. The woodpecker removed enough of the outer wood to make the shaft accessible. The long, narrow chamber probably made an ideal overwintering site for some insect. At least it was ideal up until the time the insect was eaten by the woodpecker.
It looks like the woodpecker was first successful in accessing the lower portion of the shaft and then it shifted higher and tried to regain access. Either the shaft was more deeply imbedded in the trunk or it did not exist at this upper level, because the woodpecker could not reconnect with its intended foraging site.
My assumption about the sequence of events was based on the fact that most of the bright red chips from the upper site are sitting on top of the other material. I would also guess that the woodpecker revisited the lower area after its failed attempt above. However it happened, there was quite a mass of bark and chips left in evidence. I would certainly like to know what it was after.
I was really surprised when I saw this hole chiseled into a large Eastern Red Cedar. The red interior wood of a cedar us quite hard and is rather difficult to chop into. It’s obviously the work of one of the Pileated Woodpeckers that frequent this woods. That red wood is full of the fragrant oils that do such a wonderful job of repelling wood boring insects, so it’s hard to imagine anything edible living in there. I’ve never seen woodpeckers attack a live cedar and this fact caused me to keep looking around to see if I could come up with some other explanation for the hole. 
Cedars often develop deep furrows in the trunk that can grow closed to leave a vertical shaft isolated within the tree. That’s what seems to have happened here. The woodpecker removed enough of the outer wood to make the shaft accessible. The long, narrow chamber probably made an ideal overwintering site for some insect. At least it was ideal up until the time the insect was eaten by the woodpecker.
It looks like the woodpecker was first successful in accessing the lower portion of the shaft and then it shifted higher and tried to regain access. Either the shaft was more deeply imbedded in the trunk or it did not exist at this upper level, because the woodpecker could not reconnect with its intended foraging site.
My assumption about the sequence of events was based on the fact that most of the bright red chips from the upper site are sitting on top of the other material. I would also guess that the woodpecker revisited the lower area after its failed attempt above. However it happened, there was quite a mass of bark and chips left in evidence. I would certainly like to know what it was after. 
Hi Steve ...A Pileated sure can peck of some chips bigger then a woodman's axe.
ReplyDeleteCedar as you say don't seem to be the target of such goings on ...will interesting to know the reason...do you have any stakeouts planned?? hahaha!!
Very interesting. You are a forensic botanist. :)
ReplyDeleteA forensic botanist, indeed!! Makes you worry a little, I am sure!
ReplyDeleteHi, grammie g. I don't think I have time for a stakeout. The woodpecker will just have to wait and attack the tree when it sees me coming through the woods.
ReplyDeleteGee, Lois. Do you think Hollywood would be interested in a TV show about a forensic botanist.
Hi, Karen. If I became a forensic botanical investigator, I could identify myself as FBI.
Love the red and yellow colors of the living wood. (When we lead forest hikes where I work, we tell the kids that in the woods FBI stands for "fungus, bacteria and insects," aka decomposers!)
ReplyDeleteHi, Rebecca. Freshly exposed cedar wood has some lovely shades of red. It doesn't take long before the colors fade to gray.
ReplyDeletewould any 1 happen to know what kind of beetle that gets into the cedar that makes little tiny boring holes. they are black with wings and 2 red spots on the wings. I'm making a cedar bed and these things just keep coming out of the wood work. lol any suggestions on how to get rid of em?
ReplyDeleteThe only beetle I've seen with that behavior is the Powder Post Beetle, but I've not seen any of those with red spots.
ReplyDelete