Trees and Birds

Last Tuesday I went out to check on the bird feeder and saw this in the back yard

That limb was 14.5' long. There hadn't been any wind, nor was there a snow load, so I assumed the dead tree is just starting to break down. When I went to remove the limb, I saw that it hadn't actually landed on the chair, but had landed but down first at some point (probably during the heavy snow the previous week), then fallen over after the snow had melted the previous evening. The hole is 9" deep and the but end of the limb had dirt and mulch on it.

Guessing this is the tree it came from

Later that same day, I heard the call of a big woodpecker as it was flying overhead. To my delight, a Pileated landed in trees just to the right of the one that had had lost its limb. The first 2 pictures are at a slight zoom, and then cropped to bring the bird "closer". The 3rd picture is at a high zoom

As if that wasn't good enough, after I quit taking pictures I saw another one coming over the trees, and it landed behind the first. That distance was a real stretch, and this is the best picture I could get

And to end things, here is Spot being cute. She had originally burrowed completely under the pillows, but by the time I grabbed my phone, she had moved out some.

Comments

[Cop Car]

Oh, wow, Bogie - just wow! You get to photograph pileateds! Thank you, thank you. Were I you, I would conclude that the pileated pair landed on the branch, breaking it off. *laughing* They should love you for providing a dead tree or two for their hunting forays.

Yes, Spot knows she's cute, doesn't she? Nice photos.

BTW: Nice escape by your chair. Happily, you weren't sitting in the chair contemplating the state of the world when the branch came down. The branch might have missed you, but wouldn't that induce a heart attack?

[bogie]

Well, I would love to "blame" the pileateds, and mayhap they did have something to do with it by previously drilling on the tree itself. But the branch broke off before I saw them. And really, it is a stretch to think that they broke off a branch that is 14.5 feet long just by landing on it. BTW, the butt of the branch was a fairly clean break and as I was cutting it down I didn't see any holes in it. It was just very, very dry.

It certainly would have caused me consternation if it had fallen as I was sitting under it!