Linked commenting is now implemented here. If it turns out to be a honking pain in the butt, I'll get rid of it. Thus far, I'm ambivalent.
I've been availing myself of the cloud cover and cool temps to do some chainsawing, and was up about 20 feet in an alder, taking off branches that are just going to fill the gutters with leaves come fall, when I found a downy woodpecker nest in the upper part of the trunk. Well, rats. So much for my grand plan of limbing. then taking the sucker down. I'll go on with the limbing (alders are darn near impossible to kill), but leave the trunk standing. For now.
If English starlings or sparrows eventually take over, I'll drop that trunk in a heartbeat - preferably with the illegal aliens still inside. For the moment, knowing who's living there, it's spared.
