who knows a lot about wood peckers, I know they like dead trees, I have a huge silver maple that recently disagree with a winter storm and i have cut it down mostly, [part of it sprung back to life but there is a huge section that died, her lies my question

will a woodpecker visit a tree that shows signs of life still to use one dead part of tree, or am i spinning my wheels hoping and should i finish the job on the tree

second question anyone else being flooded with black birds? its not even funny here, never has it been this bad am curious if the flooding has had something to do with this

will nest in a living tree. Our neighbor's live oak, has
a hole in it, and a red bellied woodpecker is raising a family
in it.

The oak in our front yard has a hole made by a woodpecker,
and is now the home of squirrels, who enlarged it.

Here is a picture I took last weekend while we were fixing my
front garden, right below this branch:

Do you mean grackles? or blackbirds with the red patch on the shoulders?

Blackbirds mass for migrating. We see this up North alot.
The grackles have just returned to our feeders, with their families this week. In fall we have alot of them.

If the fields are flooded, then groups would move around to find new feeding grounds. Blackbirds typically feed in open meadow type spots.

common black bird or grackles not the red wing black bird, the red wing black bird is my best friend when i hear his mating call i know spring is here, understand migrate but its a bit late for migrating wouldnt you agree, they are every where they actually chased the starlings away too and my finches