Cavity Nesting Birds at the Swamp

   When a pileated woodpecker flew out of the woods and showed his agitation towards a raccoon in an old oak tree, we (Kristy, Joanne, and Barb, who is not in the photo) followed his return flight in an attempt to find the nest.
   The pileated was flicking his tail directly at the raccoon and chirping loudly.  It was clear that the pileated woodpecker was upset with the raccoon and wanted the raccoon out of his territory.  Raccoons eat the eggs and young of many cavity nesting birds and ground nesting birds. The current raccoon population is much too high and they have decimated certain bird populations and contribute to declining numbers of blandings turtles, which are now becoming extremely rare.

   Although we couldn't find the pileated woodpecker nest, we did find many other cavity nesters............including tree swallows, house wren, and sapsucker, all of which nested successfully.