Tree cavities are important habitat for many types of wildlife, and the swamps of the southeastern U.S.A. are no exception. Furthermore, some of the trees in those swamps have some hellacious cavities. In the Carolinas these may be home to birds such as wood ducks and other ducks, promontory warblers, chimney swifts, and pileated and other woodpeckers. The apparently extinct ivory billed woodpecker called such cavities home. Cavities in swamp cypress and tupelo trees also host some important bat species such as the big-eared and the mouse-eared bat. River otters, black bear and alligators may also den in such cavities. I have read that beavers may also den in tree cavities, but I have observed no evidence of this, even in swamps with many beaver and many tree cavities.
This post is basically a photo album of some of the best and most interesting cavity trees I've seen in the coastal plain swamps of North and South Carolina.
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