Busy woodpecker work

It was a rainy Monday and cooler than it had been over the weekend. But when the downpours slackened to drizzle, I hit the trail on a mission to see whether any of the vernal pools at Babcock Ridge had begun to fill with water. They had, but, with ice still in place, I couldn't tell if any salamander larvae or adults were in residence. On the edge of one of the vernals, however, I saw evidence of another Babcock resident: a Pileated Woodpecker. In the two weeks since I last visited this particular pond, the big bird had found something of interest in a red maple growing close to the water. The ground was littered with freshly chiseled wood chips and the maple trunk, about 15 feet up, bore two new rectangular holes—perhaps the start of a new nest cavity, maybe just a tunnel into a treasure trove of carpenter ants, the Pileated's favorite food. I'll have to be more stealthy the next time I visit this spot.