Sapwells

You can gauge the level of our current obsession with all things maple by the fact that my husband asked me over breakfast what kind of maple leaf was depicted on the Canadian flag!

This shot is more maple mania - one of our trees has been heavily tapped by a yellow-bellied sapsucker, and I've been meaning to blip the sapwells for a while. Sapsuckers are notorious for boring lines of small holes into the bark of trees, particularly maples and birches, so they can lap up the flowing sugary sap. They also eat the insects that are attracted to the sap. The sapsucker maintains his sapwells - the tree will heal itself naturally if he does not (this has happened to some of the taps that we have made too). The wells in the picture are very fresh and literally oozing sap - it's flowing all down the side of the tree which is wet with it. In fact, this particular tree has been so heavily tapped in the past (there are old, healed sapwells all over it) that its bark has turned black with a fungus that grows on the sugar.

In spite of knowing his haunts, I have yet to actually see the sapsucker! When it gets a little warmer (i.e. when the snow has melted) I'm going to have to stake him out. One more thought - I mentioned a couple of days ago that Native Americans may have learned to tap maple trees by sampling the sapsicles (sap icicles) that grow from cut branches and wounds in the bark. Maybe they were also inspired by observing the habits of the sapsucker?