Our 'back 40', includes a quaking aspen stand right along the swamp- the area we have pulled our precious clay from many times.
It's the same spot we put the new chickens we got last yearand while tending to the hens every day and simply trying to take in some fresh air and be out, started to notice all the young aspen in the stand had theses amazing rows of circles, squares & rectangles choped into them in beautiful patterns.
You can't miss them once you see them- rows of bark-colored, then black for the older ones, holessunk into the white bark. Turns out they are the ingenious invention of the Sapsucker- wells they peck first for sap, only to come back later to gather insects gathered to feed their young.