 So welcome back folks, you may remember it. Now we get to talk about the importance of dead things in the forest and I'm going to start by looking at this wonderful example of a large snag that's a dead-standing tree and if you look carefully up here there are all kinds of holes in the tree. Those are holes that woodpeckers are making in the tree to try to find insects. They might also be holes where they're trying to build a nest. They often they build their nest right in the cavity of this dead-standing tree and so the thing to remember about snags is that the bigger they are the better they are and my friend Andy is going to help measure this particular snag and tell us that it's almost, what did you say? Let's call it 16. 16 inch diameter all right and so that is big enough for something like a pilliated woodpecker our largest woodpeckers to actually use. Now in addition to these large snags we have smaller snags in the forest that can be used by smaller woodpeckers like downy woodpeckers and then once those downy woodpeckers build a hole chickadees or tipmice will come in and use that cavity for their nest in future years. Something like this size would be good for a downy woodpecker or chickadees but definitely not pilliated woodpeckers. Now the next thing we're going to look at are dead wood on the forest floor. All right so if you look around on the forest floor here you'll see all kinds of dead wood on the ground. Now some people look at that and they think oh that's messy I want to clean it up make it look almost like a part but no no no we don't want you to do that we actually love down wood on the forest floor. We say messy is good and more is better. So here's an example of some down large down woody material this old tree that fell and is lying on the forest floor and in order to count it as being part of the down woody material we need it to be at least six inches in diameter and Andy what have we got here? In fact we've got more than eight. More than eight inches so so this is a pretty good size piece and it's also over 17 feet long. So this is the kind of log that a roughed grouse might stand on top of and flap its wings and send out a booming boom boom boom boom boom boom sound to attract a mate. It's also the kind of log that a fissure cat might run along the top of or look underneath searching for small mice and amphibians to feed on. So these features on the forest floor are really important. The other thing we want to look for are what we call fine woody material smaller smaller logs that are not logs smaller twigs that are on the forest floor but often in piles so not really what you see right in front of us but those piles of smaller twigs are places where birds can hide from predators and they can also look for insects that collect in that pile of force. In fact just last week I was out walking through the woods behind my house and there was a winter wren that was tucked right in the center of one of those piles of fine woody material. So we'll see if we can find one of those piles for you in a minute. So here's an example of a small pile of fine woody material and if you were to add a little bit more some other branched tops of trees and branches on top of this you'd have a nice little cozy cave where birds especially sparrows and wrens can come in thrushes can come in and hide in there from predators and they can also feed on the insects that collect in among these branches. And then another important part of the forest is what's here on the forest floor. These dead leaves are called leaf litter and oven birds in particular need a nice thick layer of leaves at least an inch and a half thick because they come in and they gather these leaves together and they create a little nest on the forest floor that looks just like an oven with the side entrance here which is why they're called oven birds and I can hear some of them in the background right now they go teacher teacher teacher so and they wouldn't be here if it weren't for this leaf litter. Now that you've had a chance to learn all about what different habitat features different birds need to rest feed and raise their young. We'd like to invite you to come back and talk with several professional foresters about how you can put together a management plan that enhances habitat for birds and other wildlife along with meeting whatever other goals you have for your property. So please come back soon.