Red-breasted Sapsuckers live on our tree farm, and we are able to observe
them at all seasons of the year. We always enjoy that syncopated drumming
in breeding season--no other woodpecker drums that way. The minor-keyed
whine is also a dead giveaway for their presence. And of course, the
telltale holes arranged in rows on a tree show that sapsuckers have been
pursuing their gathering of sap. Their favorite trees in the past have
been the hazelnut and walnut trees, with a small amount of attention to
the cedars, but little real damage has been done. They seem to ignore the
alder, mountainash, cascara and Douglas-fir trees.

Lately, however, we have been observing more destructive behavior. We find
it disturbing that the sapsuckers are killing our western paper birch
trees. Until 1993 we had no birches, but when the 1993 inaugural-day storm
blew down seven acres of our mature forest, the following timber salvage
operation opened up a large area of disturbed soil, and the birch seed
must have blown in from the southwest. Now the birches are about 3 inches
in diameter and 15 to 20 feet tall, and their sweet sap is attracting the
sapsuckers. But rather than drilling just a few holes, these birds are
ringing the trees, on some trees completely removing the phloem and
cambium layers, exposing the bare sapwood. The trees don't know it yet,
but they are dead above this point. Apparently the sapsuckers don't
realize that they are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs,
removing the trees from next year's sap supply.

As the birch trees were not our intended timber crop, and we tolerated
their introduction rather than carefully nurturing them, we are not hurt
badly by their destruction. Rather we find it interesting and educational
to observe the behavior of the sapsuckers, and bear no real ill will
toward them. Isn't observing birds a fascinating hobby?

Bill and Erin Woods Woods Tree Farm Redmond, WA U.S.A.
<wwwbike at halcyon.com>