12/7/2020 11:26:00 AM Pileated woodpecker debarks tree
Bess David, who lives along Fifth Avenue Southeast, stands near the Summit ash tree in her back yard, where a pileated woodpecker drilled so many holes in the trunk that the tree eventually lost almost all its bark.
When Bess David thinks about the Summit ash tree in the back yard of her house along Fifth Avenue Southeast, she can't help but remember her mother. "Mom died in May of 1972," she said. "I planted the tree in honor of my mother's passing." On Friday, Nov. 13, David noticed a large bird, a pileated woodpecker, pecking away at the trunk of her ash tree. "That's the first time I saw it," she said. "It's been working at it ever since." It wasn't long before the woodpecker had drilled so many large holes in the trunk that the tree eventually lost almost all its bark, now sitting in a large pile below the trunk... For more on this story pick up your copy of the Dec. 8 Stewartville STAR.
