One-Eyed Tree Face

The one-eyed tree face looked like it was winking at me. It certainly got my attention! There were two eyes yesterday and now only one there. I wanted to blame the loss on the squirrels or raccoons, but when I looked closely I realized the problem was mine. I had failed to follow one of my own rules regarding screws holding things on trees. It is important to check the screws about once a month during the growing season.

As a tree grows, the outer layers expand outward but the inner layers do not. Screws are anchored in the inner layers and can't move outward. The result is that the tree will expand past the end of the screw and anything mounted on it will be pushed off. In this case, it was an eye of my tree face. But it could have been a bird house full of babies.

Let this be a reminder to check all your tree-mounted bird houses to see if they are still securely connected to the tree. Look inside to see if the screw head is sinking into the back panel of the house. Use a screwdriver to back the screws out a bit several times during the warm months. If you notice that the screw head has sunk more than a little ways into the back of the bird house, simply add a new screw and monitor it more often.

Finding the eye from a tree face on the ground is much better than finding an active nest box that has been pushed off its mounting screws. Thank you, tree face!