QUESTION. Is it possible to seperate Sapsuckers based on the size and shape
of the holes they drill to collect sap?

Today I discovered recent Sapsucker work about 12 feet up the truck of a 25
year old Scotch Pine in Two Rivers County Park in Benton County. However,
the only Sapsucker work that I'm familiar with is that of Red-naped
Sapsucker, which in my experience, is composed of rows and lines of squarish
holes averaging 1/4 of an inch (or maybe a little more) on the sides and
3/16 of an inch deep and spaced from 1/4 to 1/2 inches apart. But the work
I discovered today is quite different. The holes are oval, averaging
between 3/16 and 1/4 of an inch wide and between 3/32 and 1/8 tall and so
shallow as to not make visible wood below the cambium layer. The spacing
between holes averaged only 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch and the holes appear to
have been created in a horizontal pattern.

The very little information I've been able to find so far seems to suggest
that Williamson's Sapsucker would be the most likely suspect, but given that
there is only one record of Williamson's Sapsucker for Benton County
(December 19, 1998), I'm not ready to call this one without more
information. And you can bet I'm going to be watching that tree for a
while.

Dennis Rockwell Kennewick, WA dennis.rockwell at gte.net

One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968)