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So tonight i'm out cutting up the downed trees I got yesterday from a nasty storm rolling through, and as i'm going, I get to a rotted arm that was left on the tree after I lost half of that tree last year. I cut off about 24" or so, and after that log falls, I pick it up to throw it in the wheelbarrow to haul it to the road. As I pick it up, I look and it's pretty much completely hollowed out, with a nice 2"-3" hole on one side. I show it to my brother and he looks at it and then I toss it. Didn't think anything of it till after about 45 minutes of cutting, hauling all the branches out to the road, I return to the bulk of the tree to cut it up for firewood. I go and get ready to start cutting it down to size, when I look and see this:
It's a red-bellied woodpecker baby chick. He blended in with my driveway so well cause I have a top coat of millings (ground up blacktop) and so it was kind of lucky That I saw him. Of course I run to go get my camera, and when I get back I lay right down on the ground to get a few macro shots, and as i get down there, I see there are 3 more still in the other half of the log/arm that I cut off earlier (3 males, 1 female)
Now as I got down there, I could see that the one laying out was just a little bit bloodied on one of his claws, but no where else. So here I sit.......no clue as to what top do with them. I finally decide to take them out and put them off to the side in my neighbors huge pine needle pile. After setting them there, The cut one didn't really move, but the other three kept hoping/flying a little bit....obviously trying to get away from the situation.
They were really giving me the 'ole stink eye when I got anywhere near them :P
So, after seeing how much they were not liking being out in the open, I decide to cut the other half of the nest/arm/log off, and then go and dig under 45 minutes of branches
to retrieve the other half. I collect all four of them and one at a time put them back in.....not the easiest thing to do now that they were now starting to chirp/scream/whatever. Before this not a single one of them made a peep. Kinda funny how that worked.
So anyway, I get them all in and then put that log way off to the side of the driveway under a row of pines, then I put the top half of the log back,......hopefully restoring their home good enough so that mama pecker can find them and they will survive. They only get about 8"-9" when full grown, and these were about 5"-6", so these were probably not far off from flying the coop anyway. At least that's what I hope after seeing how they almost could fly when they were trying to get away from me.
Here's what it looks like after reassembly:
So anywhoooo....cross your fingers and hope mama finds them. I hear that there's really not much meat on them, and of course they taste like chicken too.
I'll take a peek in there after a couple days and see what's happening.
It's a red-bellied woodpecker baby chick. He blended in with my driveway so well cause I have a top coat of millings (ground up blacktop) and so it was kind of lucky That I saw him. Of course I run to go get my camera, and when I get back I lay right down on the ground to get a few macro shots, and as i get down there, I see there are 3 more still in the other half of the log/arm that I cut off earlier (3 males, 1 female)
Now as I got down there, I could see that the one laying out was just a little bit bloodied on one of his claws, but no where else. So here I sit.......no clue as to what top do with them. I finally decide to take them out and put them off to the side in my neighbors huge pine needle pile. After setting them there, The cut one didn't really move, but the other three kept hoping/flying a little bit....obviously trying to get away from the situation.
They were really giving me the 'ole stink eye when I got anywhere near them :P
So, after seeing how much they were not liking being out in the open, I decide to cut the other half of the nest/arm/log off, and then go and dig under 45 minutes of branches
to retrieve the other half. I collect all four of them and one at a time put them back in.....not the easiest thing to do now that they were now starting to chirp/scream/whatever. Before this not a single one of them made a peep. Kinda funny how that worked. 
So anyway, I get them all in and then put that log way off to the side of the driveway under a row of pines, then I put the top half of the log back,......hopefully restoring their home good enough so that mama pecker can find them and they will survive. They only get about 8"-9" when full grown, and these were about 5"-6", so these were probably not far off from flying the coop anyway. At least that's what I hope after seeing how they almost could fly when they were trying to get away from me.
Here's what it looks like after reassembly:
So anywhoooo....cross your fingers and hope mama finds them. I hear that there's really not much meat on them, and of course they taste like chicken too.
I'll take a peek in there after a couple days and see what's happening.
can't get the image out of my head either ick!!!
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