Did lightning do this?

[kelLOGg]

This pine is at the edge of a pasture so all the branches are on the same side, only about 14" dia and 30-40 ft tall, with much taller trees nearby and the amount of resin pouring out at 5' high is dramatic. A hand-size piece of bark is broken loose allowing sap to flow. The resin has even "puddled" on the ground. I see no evidence of lightning damage in the top of the tree.





 




 



 

[thecfarm]

I have oak tree and maple the same way on the edge of mine field too. Well minus the pitch part.  ;D  get more light on the field side. At least I know which way they will fall when I cut them. Some branches are about 20 feet long.

[Ron Wenrich]

I have similar damage to a Norway spruce in my front yard.  I read somewhere that it was bird damage.  Most likely a woodpecker doing some major work looking for bugs.

[caveman]

I would be leaning towards pinecone worm or mechanical damage.  The tree exudes sap to protect the wound.

[kelLOGg]

It looks like mechanical damage but I'm at a loss as to what caused it. Buck fighting a pine?😀  Not familiar with pine cone worm but I'll look it up. 
I just googled it and the description of the damage is very close to what I observed. I think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I've been thinking about this thread and yesterday stopped to take some photos of a (witnessed) lighting struck pine. Happened about a month ago. For comparison;


 
 Note the log shards of bark blown off.


 

I am surprised this tree didn't have more damage. I had a tree across the road turned into a billion toothpicks after a lightening strike. What's typical with lightening is that the damage will follow long lines up and down the tree, whereas with birds and insects the bad spots will be much shorter but more frequent as they hunt new sections.

[Ianab]

I am surprised this tree didn't have more damage.

Every strike is going to be slightly different, in both voltage and current. The voltage determines how much gap (between the cloud and the earth) it's able to jump, while the current determines how hot whatever it hits is going to get. So a 'minor" strike can just singe some top branches, but if a big enough charge builds up, it's enough to insta-boil the water inside the whole tree, and it explodes into kindling.   In between you get might get some patches of bark blown off around where the current tracked. It's common to see big Norfolk Pines around here the top 20 ft dead, but as the trunk gets bigger the current isn't enough to blow the bark off and kill the whole tree. The tree then sends up some new leaders from below the dead part and keeps growing. 

That's why when people ask if a lightning hit tree is going to be OK to mill? Hard to say, it might just be missing some bark, or it could be full of shake as it was close to a steam explosion. 

[Hilltop366]

I have oak tree and maple the same way on the edge of mine field too. Well minus the pitch part.  ;D  get more light on the field side. At least I know which way they will fall when I cut them. Some branches are about 20 feet long.

I once cut a spruce along the edge of a field with all the long branches on one side. I cut it off at about 5' high to avoid the fence staples, once it started to drop while cutting the back cut I took off and ran about 20 to 25 feet at a 70° angle from the direction the tree was falling, the tree dropped on the branches as planned and then compressed the branches and sprung up and in my direction with the butt of the tree passing by me at head height about a foot and a half from me. I was amazed at the distance it traveled and glad i ran as far as I did.

[GullyBog]

the tree passing by me

Never good