Just Doing His Job

   The other morning, I was busy cutting out some of the smilax vines that had taken over a clump of palmettoes.  This is some chore since the tubers can be massive and, if you leave one tiny bit, the vines will soon come back with a vengeance.  It is a losing battle on this hill.  Then again, perhaps I should leave the vines and chop out everything else.  Those huge tuber clumps do a fine job of keeping the hillside from washing down into the Bayou during hurricanes!  Maybe I need to rethink my landscaping here.  Anyway, as I was whacking at the vines, a familiar whapping could be heard just behind me.  Looking up, I found the guy that was smacking a tree with all his might.  Ahh, you are a good fellow, Mr. Pileated Woodpecker. You keep working on that tree!  I need it down.

  The woodpecker was hammering away on a dead white oak tree that had succumbed to a termite infestation.  Yep, most of our live trees are being eaten from the inside out and there is not much that can be done.  We have been treating the trees but there is no way possible to get to "the root of the problem"...so the termites flourish and the trees die.  It is sad. Still, the woodpecker is doing his job.  As he hammers away on the tree, he is probably getting rid of more termites, wood beetles and carpenter ants than we will ever be able to tackle.  

  I watched and smiled as the bird bore hole after hole into the dead tree.  Since this particular tree is far from anything it can damage by falling, I am leaving it for Mother Nature to take down.  So many critters can inhabit or forage in a dead tree.  The pileated is only one type of woodpecker that visits the tree on a daily basis.  The birds are doing a fine job of literally "chopping" down the tree.  By midwinter, the tree should come crashing down then the termite nest beneath can be accessed and the varmints killed.  Until then...the carpenter ants can feast upon the termites and, in turn, the birds can feast upon the ants.  Win/win situation for those of us who hate termites!  Good job, Mr. Pileated Woodpecker!  Good job.