Over the winter we had the
pleasure of being visited by a pair of
Pileated
Woodpecker's! As you can see in the accompanying photo
they can inflect a lot of damage in a short
time.
The tree that they attacked was infested by Carpenter Ants. I had noticed this in the previous summer. The pine tree was still alive, so I thought that as soon as it shows signs of dying I would cut it down. I guess the Woodpeckers have given me a reason to cut it down sooner.
The Pileated Woodpecker is about the size of a large crow, about 15" long. At one time they were on the endangered species list, but now have been removed.
If you would like more information on the Pileated Woodpecker, there are several sites on the internet. One such site is listed here.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/