Tapping

April 12, 2026 Spire 2026 Issue

By Piper Galipeau

A woodpecker sits on a tree. A maple sap collection buckets is attached to the tree. A tree in the background also has a bucket attached.

Tapping, 2025, Watercolor, 10 x 9in.

I initially did this piece for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) poster contest. With this piece, the goal was to highlight the shared use of our native trees’ sap run in the late winter/early spring time. A variety of birds, insects, and other animals (including humans) benefit from these trees. The species I chose to include in this piece are the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera), and Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus) as they are some of the most commonly seen. Other bird and insect species that utilize tree sap are the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), occasionally Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris), the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), Red-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) and White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis), and the Eastern Black Carpenter Ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus). Both humans and woodpeckers have the practice of “tapping” trees to access their valuable sap, and other birds and insects take advantage of this sap resource.