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February 17, 2008
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker vs. Yellow-bellied Developer
Dope on the Slope
NoLandGrab: When Jon Crow of the Brooklyn Bears Garden started telling us about the threat of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, we were all "yeah Jon, we already know about that." Then we realized he was talking about a bird...
Sapsuckers makes two kinds of holes: deep drilled narrow openings and the larger shallow patches shown here. These holes are just deep enough into the bark tissue to allow exuding of sap. The sap, as well as any insects attracted to it, is eagerly lapped up by the bird. Many other species of bird take advantage of this "strip mining" (the lousy parasites), so the yellowbellied sapsucker could be considered a keystone species.Do the holes hurt the tree? While it's possible that a tree could be seriously damaged by such treatment, it would not be in the sapsucker's long term interest to kill its food source. As several of the gardeners present last Sunday pointed out, not one branch was girdled, so it's possible the damage will be repaired by the tree itself.
If only the yellowbellied real estate developer (Agripeta maximus1) followed a similar strategy. Unfortunately, the neighborhoods that are being pecked to death are not a meaningful resource for this wily species. There is no incentive to preserve anything, because it has no bearing on the species' future success. Our local government will always be there to toss out more seed.
Posted by amy at February 17, 2008 12:36 PM