Attracting woodpeckers

May 24, 2005 02:14 PM EST | Birding | Email to Friend

On our old farm in southeast Ohio, we have a rather unusual means of landscaping the wide-open spaces of our yard. Eyeing the treeless expanse we inherited from the lawn-happy former owners of the property, we decided to take immediate action to make it more bird-friendly. On walks through our steep woods, we scouted for fallen trees that were small enough to drag up the hill to the house. My husband, Bill, went to work with a post-hole digger, sinking deep holes in the clay soil in which he could plant the dead snags. Within a week, dead trees sprouted all over the yard and old fields, and just as quickly, they were adorned with birds, who were obviously glad to have a place to perch and preen, and survey our work. Suet and peanut butter, smeared into crevices on the snags, were a welcome surprise for woodpeckers who came to check out these new perches, and snags made great places to hang seed, suet, and peanut feeders. The snags form a natural bridge from the woodland to our yard, giving the birds a place to perch and observe the feeders, watch for predators, and even excavate for the insects that inhabit dead wood. One by one, the woodpeckers ventured out of the surrounding forest into the terra incognita of our yard. Of the seven species of woodpeckers that can be found, either as residents or migrants, in our woods, only the lordly pileated has spurned our offerings.

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• Suet
• Peanuts
• Sunflower Seed
• Fruit and Nectar
• Woodpecker Feeders

[Read the full article via Plow & Hearth...]