White pines and woodpeckers

[jackpine]

 I have several white pines, 14" to 20" dbh, that appear to be healthy. No signs of blister rust and they did send out new growth last year. My concern is the Pileated woodpeckers are making holes in them about 20 to 30 feet up and, in some cases, more than one hole in the same area. My first thought was carpenter ants and that I should harvest these trees before they get any worse but I hate to assume that and drop good trees when I don't need the lumber right now.
Any thoughts?

I do know that the woodpeckers will work the oaks that die of oak wilt  a few months before the tree shows any signs of dying . That is the logic in thinking they may signal the same type of problem in the white pine.

Bill

[beenthere]

Bill
I'd suspect some soft, decayed wood that is attracting the pileated wp's. And if there are carpenter ants they are after, the ants also are indicative of decayed wood.
Something going on there.
Maybe take a tree down to inspect it more closely, to really find out what is of interest to the peckers.

[Chuck White]

My money would say, there are ants.

The woodpeckers with the exception of the sapsucker don't usually bother healthy trees.

[ely]

those pileated wood peckers will punch holes in anything they choose to. they ruin our highline poles around here and i know full well there are no insects in them. change the pole out and the birds drill new holes in the new poles in the same spots, even thru the screen wire we put over the new poles to guard against that sort of activity. there is one near my sawmill that hammers on the pole top pin on the distribution pole... you can hear that metal ringing for along ways off.

i have it on good authority that if you drill a hole in those birds they stop the pecking.

[thecfarm]

Them critters can do some damage.     I have them here but they chew up my fir and maybe a cedar tree. These trees are well on their way of dying.

[Cedar Savage]

Yea, woodpeckers usually don't work for nothing, they're either drilling for food, or using it for a sounding pole to attract a mate. I've seen them pound on alot of different stuff in the spring, metal stove pipes, signs, & telephone poles, looking for that perfect racket to call a mate in.....

[jackpine]

Ely, That's the reason I asked the question. The pileated around here appear to peck holes just because they can :D
If it were any other woodpecker I have no doubt that there would be grubs or insects in the trees but with the pileated I am not so sure. I have a female pileated that comes to our suet feeder and then goes to a bur oak and strips bark off without making any holes.

btw, she can eat a lot of suet in one day ;D

Bill

[g_man]

I don't know. We have lots of pileated here at our place. I have never seen one make a cavity unless they were mining bugs. They do bang on trees to mark their territory or attract a mate but they don't make a cavity doing it just a lot of noise.

[thecfarm]

I have never seen one come to our feeder. That must be a sight. I only see them once in a great while. I hear them more than I see them.  :D  I think we only have a few around here. I may only see them once or twice a year.
I took this picture a few years back. This is one of the many dead fir I have. The hole is about 3 feet long.



 

Than the chips on the ground,



 

[SwampDonkey]

Before I took down the big yard maple this spring, a pileated would venture into the yard on occasion to give a good peck or two to the rotten area of that one tree. I would drive it off. That is the only tree it bothered. Now the sap suckers, come spring time I can have as many a 6 of those %$%%#rds on one tree. Usually my red pine in the back yard. They hit it every spring, but they also peck all the other trees except spruce, aspen and cedar. But this one pine they hammer badly. It's full of pitch tubed from the pecks. They killed a larch awhile back by pecking the life out of it. It was healthy to before they did their business.  >:(

[jackpine]

Thecfarm, my bird feeder is less than 10 ft. from my living room window and about 25 ft. from my driveway.  The female pileated not only comes for suet but if you are in the driveway when she wants to feed she lands in a tree about 50 ft. away and will fuss at you until you move farther away. :D

A female raised a brood last year in a dead pine just off my lot and every time I went too far into the yard she would scold me for as long as I stayed there.

They can be noisy and maybe destructive at times but We still like seeing them around.

[snowstorm]

i had a woodpecker that tried to peck a hole in my tv antennae every morning at 5am i tried to scare him off with a 22 he moved at the wrong time.......then he fell 

[Slab Slicer]

Once watched a woodpecker spend 30 minutes hammering away on the side of a rusty, empty 55 gallon drum. Man did that make a racket  :D :D

[Cedar Savage]

He called all the ladies in for 10 mi around him...

[clww]

I read this thread a couple of days ago, and read some parts to my wife last night. This morning I wake up to the sound and vibration of a woodpecker. He was outside the bedroom window banging away on our arbor, which covers a concrete slab in the back yard. Unbelievable coincidence!  :D

[sharp edge]

WP can live a long time with the center rotten out. That the type of tree wood peckers like.

SE