Lovely day, somewhat tempered by a bit of the flu.

Vernal pool in the hollow of the old sugar maple alongside the driveway. This tree has been a prodigious sap producer, sugar coating any vehicle parked under it. Oddly, no sap running yet this year. Has the tree succumbed to the vicissitudes of time?

And then this ash in the park. From the base all the way to the topmost twigs, it looks like tha bark has been scraped with a razor or draw knife. And the trunk is riddled with holes, but not the typical D-shaped holes of the Emerald Ash Borer. All I can think is that the tree was home to many borers but woodpeckers got to them before they coud emerge, stripping off vast amounts of bark as they worked. What else could it be?