San Rafael Valley, AZ ~~ Photo by Bill Haas

Sunday, June 19, 2011

'PECKER PANTRY


In Park Sierra, Coarsegold, CA, there are more Acorn Woodpeckers than people, squirrels and golf carts combined.  They peck and peck and drill and peck and store acorns EVERYWHERE:  woodsheds, utility poles, benches, awnings, radiators -- just about anywhere they can poke their little beaks!  This oak tree is a favorite of the ubiquitous  red-headed 'Peckers, and one of their most visible acorn pantries. The tree has so many holes and had actually become such a hazard that some limbs have had to be removed.  Here's what one limb looked like last Fall.


Some branches have been drilled so frequently, so thoroughly, and by so many 'Pecker generations that you can see daylight right through them!