The pileated woodpecker tore into an alder tree near the top of the park.  Here is a video shot in 2008 of a woodpecker tearing apart an alder near the parking lot.  Decaying alders may be more alive than when they were alive.  Bats may nest under the buckled bark.  Termites drill into the soft, rotten wood, and woodpeckers dig the termites out.  Flickers may cut out a nest inside the trunk of a dead alder.

If you are patient and lucky, you may get to see two flickers do their courtship dance.  They bob their heads at one another while making funny little squeaks.

 In the picture above, there is a tiny little spider on the wax paper lichen.  Look closely and see if you can find it. 

These are the same stones I photographed yesterday, but with sun on them.

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