My home is wood heated. I spend a bit of time chopping over the a long winter. Chunks of wood and bark are always flying off and I use it as a natural mulch in my garden. I try not to waste anything.
Year before last I saw an abstract painter with a landscape on a large section of bark. If I remember correctly the bark was from a tree that had been lost on his property during one of the hurricanes. It was quite large and colorful. I’m intimidated working on large surfaces, but I thought a hunk of bark might be a surface to explore. I thought the inner part – the part toward the center of the trunk – if sanded and sealed properly would be great for a bird.
As I was stacking last year’s firewood, I noticed I had a few solid pieces of bark so I stored them to let them season. This past spring I kept the best and sanded them smooth. No many more pieces have come off since, but enough to do a few. With this new one, only three. I’ve learned quite a bit over the last two about proper sanding and sealing so I’d expect each piece to last a long time if properly cared for.
The new piece is of a Pileated Woodpecker fledgling. We’ve got a pair that nest in a dense stand of hardwoods across the field from our home. I enjoy listening for their booming knocks and calls and have been very lucky to get a few reference photos. They’re probably my favorite woodpecker because of their size. How can you not think of birds’ genetic link to dinosaurs looking at the Pileated?
