Why I Prefer Not To Cut Dead Standing Trees - A Video Explanation

Today on video, I captured one of the reasons why I prefer to leave the dead trees standing and use them for firewood only after they have fallen on their own:

Quads, the bar has now been raised. Stop it!
Now I have to take the video camera to the woods with me? Hmmm, maybe not a bad idea.

The camera I normally use also does video. It's my Internet connection that doesn't like it!

Pretty sure that's a Pileated Woodpecker...beautiful.

That's it sure enough, savage. We don't have them here but my wife says she has seen one this winter. I still haven't seen it so don't know for sure.

Less than ten years ago we didn't have any around here either. First time I ever saw one I was mesmerized. Thought I was seeing things. Had never seen a woodpecker that big before.

Pileated woodpeckers are extremely neat to watch in action . . . and the holes they can make in a tree in such a short time is nothing short of amazing.

Every now and then I get a pileated at my suet feeder.

I have big 'ol pine trees they 're more than welcome to make homes in and find meals.

Pine and cherry trees tend to rot pretty quick here left dead standing.
I leave the pines.

I guess in the tree he is OK. I had one take a liking to my flue cap several years ago. About 7:30 in the morning I was jolted out of bed by a metallic jack hammering "B-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Ring......B-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Ring" He hammered away on that cap for hours - doubt he found anything to eat! I was later told this is the mating call and the louder the better. This guy must have thought he was a stallion!

Nice Pileated! We usually see them around here munching on sumac berries during the winter.

Very cool! I have them on stumps in the yard etc. I took down some big pines to use the fuel and open some space- but I left almost 1/2 the trunks on the ground as habitat and to replenish the carbon base in the soil.

Ah! So that explains it. One year we had one that took a likening to an aluminium lather and we were wondering if it had gone coo-coo.

our local resident prefers telephone poles.

One of them was right outside the house window today, in the snowstorm. I feed the birds, and have flickers, downy, and hairy woodpeckers come to the suet all day long. So far the pileated and the redheaded have never been interested, but they do hang around nearby sometimes.

Whoooah there!
That's three confirmed attacks to private property!
BLAM, BLAM, BLAM with the little monsters...
After all. They are just rats with punk hairdos :lol:

Ha! I like 'em. I leave them plenty of dead trees to play with, so they leave my house alone. The ones I have trouble with on the house are the white-breasted nuthatches. They peck at my asphalt shingles.

thats to cool quads ill admit i have passed on dead trees ,i figure they might need em more than me. I feed em to. I did get the red headed woodpecker to feed the last to winters,seems they are kinda jumpy and prefer the suet off away from the crowd.

I thought it was a woody wood pecker! HA HA HA

Love it! Woodpeckers are called a keystone species because so many other animals rely on the nest cavities they create.

My porch. I've since upgraded to a feeder with tail support.

So cool! I have never had one of them come to my feeder. Have had them come to the water though.

Here is a picture where I had three Pileated Woodpeckers in one photo. There were 4 in my yard but I could only get 3 in the picture. Magnificent birds!

Awesome!

Quads nice video, on the weather front are you staying dry. I see Portage Wisconsin had some bad flooding.


Zap

It's all around me, but it never floods within miles of my place. Too much sand and the nearest water to my house is a few miles away. We rarely even get puddles when it rains. I was over by La Crosse on Saturday and there was a lot of water there. Hwy 35 was just about ready to go under. Necedah was also bad, and got worse Sunday, or so I heard. Portage is keeping their fingers crossed that one of the old levees, which is about to break, holds until the water goes down. If you draw a straight line between Necedah and Portage, I'm about halfway between the two.

Beautiful and fascinating birds. I love watching them. We have the Pileated type here, too.