Much rests on the shock absorbent shoulders of the flamboyantly named yellow-bellied sapsucker, a migratory woodpecker that’s busy chiselling out its home in May. Indeed, the cardinal-sized bird’s singular talents, and abundance, make it one of the most influential movers and shakers in the forest.
With few insects stirring, yellow-bellies in early spring rely heavily on tapping the outer sapwood of trees such as hemlock and aspen. After leaf out, they siphon the sweeter sap trickling down through the inner bark of birch, maple, beech, and other hardwoods. A family may work more than a dozen trunks on its territory, but usually focusses on a few choice, already-wounded or declining big trees, which yield the sweetest, most bountiful flows.
Later in spring and summer, a host of insects—ants, hornets, beetles,…
