WOODPECKER HOLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1938, Page 5

WOODPECKER HOLES

AMERICAN’S UNUSUAL HOBBY. SALOME, Arizona. Collecting woodpecker nesting holes in cactus is the odd hobby of Ernest R. Hall, local mining man. He has more than 1,000 and is adding to his accumulation almost every day as he motors about over the deserts of western Arizona. These deserts are studded with giant saguaro cacti (Cercus giganteus) ranging up to 30 feet or more in height, and there is scarcely a saguaro without several cavaties drilled into its soft flesh by woodpeckers. Decay may then enlarge the hole, but tough scar tissue soon forms on the inside and a cavity remains which makes an ideal nesting place for small birds of the desert. That scar tissue is the most durable part of the saguaro and the “woodpecker holes” are almost indestructible. Indians and pioneers often used them for drinking vessels and for other purposes. Most of them, however, are so irregular in shape that they have little value except as curiosities. It is these odd-shaped qnes. especially those that suggest some animal or object, that Ernest Hall loves best. He carrier a saw in his car; whenever he sees a dead saguaro he cuts it down and saws out the sections containing woodpecker holes. His collection, ranged around the outside walls of his adobe cabin in Salome, has of late become one of the most unique attractions of this unique desert town.