The Enigma of the Acorns is Solved!

Back in mid January, I wrote about finding acorns stuffed in some holes down on the pier posts.  I pondered just what critter had decided to hide its stash two hundred feet out from the shoreline.  Several thoughts came to mind but none were ever satisfactorily confirmed.  The enigma lived on and went unsolved for the past six months.  Although, I watched the pier posts, I never saw any critter that struck me as being an "acorn-eater" ever even come near the area.  I was bewildered.

This evening after our (here lately) usual thunderstorm, I headed to the pier.  This storm, like yesterday's, was quite fierce.  Strong winds and lightning seemed to be the "way of the day"!  Today, we even had a slight bit of hail.  What a difference an hour or so makes!  As I walked the pier, you would have never expected that a violent storm had just passed over the Bayou.  All was calm and peaceful!  As I neared where the marsh meets the water, I saw a flicker of movement on one of the posts.  I motioned for Ms. Ez to stay.  Whatever was on the post had not seen us as of yet but if that big, lumbering dog had her way, no critter would be safe on the pier!  I waited for just a few seconds and then saw what was working so diligently on the post.  A Red Bellied Woodpecker was trying its best to extricate an acorn from the hole in the post!  Aha!  So you are the smart critter that hid your future feast far from filching friends! I watched as the bird went from post to post all the while trying to find an acorn.  I knew that there were still some in the posts but the bird could not get to them.  Earlier, when it had poked the acorns into the man-made holes, it did not take into consideration that later they might be hard to reach.  Each acorn that was shoved in the hole pushed the previous ones further into the post.  Some were a good eight inches in the middle of a hard post. This was proving to be the undoing of the bird's well-laid plan.  Sure, he hid his stash from all the other birds but now he could not get to them himself!  Poor bird, maybe he was not so smart after all!

I am supposing tomorrow I will be the kindhearted friend of the critters and will fetch a stick to help out the hungry bird.  Since the holes were drilled all the way through the posts, I should be able to shove the acorns to one side.  Hopefully, the bird will be able to figure a way of hiding his acorns a bit better this next winter!