The work of a sharpshooter or a sapsucker?On a winter walk, I came across this living tree shot full of holes. Curiously, the holes are quite regular and occur in horizontal lines here and there on the bark. Though it looks like the work of a gun-toting miscreant, in fact a bird is responsible for these holes. The guilty party is a sapsucker, a type of woodpecker.
The holes were pecked in the bark, not to find insects like other woodpeckers, but to access the flowing sap. The holes "bleed" sap which the sapsuckers (hence their names) consume. They'll also eat any insects that happen to be feeding on the sap. The sapsuckers return to the trees to check on their "sap wells." When the tree heals, they drill new holes when the sap ceases to run from the old ones.
On your winter walks, keep your eyes open and scan tree trunks for the sign of the sapsucker.
The holes were pecked in the bark, not to find insects like other woodpeckers, but to access the flowing sap. The holes "bleed" sap which the sapsuckers (hence their names) consume. They'll also eat any insects that happen to be feeding on the sap. The sapsuckers return to the trees to check on their "sap wells." When the tree heals, they drill new holes when the sap ceases to run from the old ones.
On your winter walks, keep your eyes open and scan tree trunks for the sign of the sapsucker.
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