One of our big plane trees (Platanus x hybrida) was felled by high winds yesterday. The tree had broken half way up, with the top half leaning on the bottom half.
It was complicated to bring the whole lot down safely. When I did, I discovered this woodpecker nest at the point at which the tree had broken:
The woodpecker (we have both the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, and the Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis) had drilled into the soft plane wood and had taken most of the strength out of the tree by building such a large nest. The nest is 10cm wide, at a point at which the trunk is only 24cm diameter, so woodie had dug a nest almost half the tree's width.
A Greater Spotted Woodpecker is just 22cm tall. This tiny David felled a 20 metre Goliath of a plane tree.
It was complicated to bring the whole lot down safely. When I did, I discovered this woodpecker nest at the point at which the tree had broken:
The woodpecker (we have both the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, and the Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis) had drilled into the soft plane wood and had taken most of the strength out of the tree by building such a large nest. The nest is 10cm wide, at a point at which the trunk is only 24cm diameter, so woodie had dug a nest almost half the tree's width.
A Greater Spotted Woodpecker is just 22cm tall. This tiny David felled a 20 metre Goliath of a plane tree.
