Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1905-08-31
Saint Maru's Beacon
WOOdpeckers Make Birdseye-
Naples.

VhSu HAL mas spent eight
years and more than $75, 900 in
studying the ways of wild things,
said Greenleaf Davis, lit wonld
seem as II he should know some
thing about the nature Of animals
and birds, but / am obliged 70 own
that ] am more ignorant today than
was when my father came here
from Massachusetts, and built asaw-
mill ia 1924. when / was years
old He left all his property to me,
including miles of timber lands and
money in bank, and | have spent
all Of it except this spot where my
camp stands.
What have / accomplished?
That depends very much upon how
you look at IT, The way the world
sees things, my life has been vast
ed. Instead Of being rich ! am very
poor, so poor that the town keeps
me in the almshouse free OF cost
through the cold weather. / have
almost assured myself of very many
facts, though ] am not absolutely
certain concerning any except two.
The first isrr;hat 6ser5 wood
pecker that digs hole in a tree for
a nest chooses the east side.
have spent more than half a century
studying woodpeckers. Within
half mile OF my camp are 6l2 wood
pecker nests. l have the largest
collection of woodpeckers in the
world. though none of them is tame
or more than half domesticated.
have spent as much as $3.50 in a year
buying meat TO feed the wood
peckers. Nobody living or dead
has studied the woodpeckers so
much as | have, but the sum of my
knowledge is very small.
II know that these birds Insist
on having the hole that enters their
nests face the east, because | have
waited until the eggs we're laid in
the holes in posts | had put out and
then turned the posts about.
have done this when the birds were
away, and never has any bird con-
tinued to incubate her young when
the holes was changed from due
east. think the woOdpeckers
choose an eastern aspect for the
reason that they can know when
the sun is up. They are all early
risers, and having no alarm clock
they make sun dials OF their nests.
MY second discovery is of some
commercial use. For hundreds of
years lumbermen and cabinet max :
ers have been studying TO learn
what causes maple wood to assume
the notified aud spotted form known
as 'bird-eye.' In a hundred rock
maple trees perhaps one is q birds
eye. Nobody can pick the specific
tree out by inspecting the bark or
the manner of growth. You may
have to chop two hundred trees be-
fore you find one. but it is worth
the sacrifice.
Fact is, the woodpeckers make
all the birds-eye maple there is in
the world. In flying about the
woods they come to a rock maple
tree that yields very sweet sap in
the season when sap is running,
Most birds like sweets wood peck
ers are very fond of sugar. Having
found tree yielding a large per
cent. of sugar the birds peck holes
in the trunk and then stand against
the bark and drink the sap as il
oozes out.
After the sap has ceased to flow
and the trees have leaved out new
wood and bark form i'm those small
holes. The pecking and sap gather
ing goes on for years until the tree,
having given up so much sap to the
birds, begins TO furnish fluid con-
tanning less sugar. In ten or
twelve years after the birds quit
tree the holes are all grown up, and
nobody can pick out the bin birds
eye from other trees that the wood
peckers did not visit.
More than fifty years ago
started in to induce the wookpeck-
ers to help me make birdseye naples.
This spring had more than one
thousand birds in my employ for
two months. On the sidehill over.
looking my camp are about three
hundred birdseye naples of my own
make. know every one of them
though nobody else can guess at the
valuable trees. If live a few years
longer | am going to begin cutting.
after which l shall have more money
than | can spend. If / die l have
left record of every tree, so that
the Audubon Society can market the
wood and devote the money to Civ
ing protection to woodpeckers.