Posted by Deborah Cutler on October 22, 2006

Q: I live in Annapolis, Maryland. There is an apparently dead deciduous tree of some sort in my back yard that something is stripping the bark from. The yard is surrounded by a 4' fence. The stripping is almost completely around the trunk, starts at approximately 5' from the ground and goes to about 10'. On the tree there is much shredding, and pieces of bark on the ground. We have been noticing this for several months and it seems to be increasing. We have never seen any deer in our neighborhood, but we do have many grey squirrels and probably racoons.

What could be doing this? Should we be concerned about bear? Both bears and coyote have been seen moving across Maryland.

Thanks,

deb

State: Maryland

A: It's most likely a woodpecker. In fact, I'd suspect our largest woodpecker in the east, the Pileated Woodpecker. Dead trees often host many insects and it sounds to me that a woodpecker is returning from time to time to feed on these insects. Pileated Woodpeckers are especially good at removing large chunks of wood and bark when they probe for food but other woodpeckers can do quite a bit of "damage" too. Try checking out your tree at different times during the day and maybe you'll catch the culprit in the act. Hope this helps and let me know if you do see your "visitor". Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( October 22, 2006)