Turf war: Squirrel vs. Woodpecker

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So, who wins? There's a massive maple outside my front door, most likely 80 years old and ten feet around. It's had squirrels living in hollows of its upper branches for years, sometimes skipping a season. On the other hand, it's never had birds nest in it, at least that I've noticed in sixteen years.

This winter, which was both warmer and drier than average, saw the disappearance of the squirrels who had been living in the tree for about three years. Maybe the neighborhood fox got them, maybe someone trapped them -- whatever the reason, they were totally out of sight since last fall.

Around February, a woodpecker started frequenting the tree, not so consistently at first, but more and more so until now he/she is out there from sun up to sun down. I assumed with the squirrels gone, there were lots of comfortable places for a woodpecker to make a home.

Up until now, I have been happy with the switch, because the squirrels were notorious for stripping the bark from entire branches of the maple, littering the sidewalk with them and most likely killing off parts of the tree, digging up some of my flower bulbs, and generally being a nuisance. The woodpecker, on the other hand, is annoying only with its song, yapping over and over just feet from my office window. I'll gladly take that annoyance if it means the squirrels won't be sending the tree to an early death.

This morning, reviewing the new plant growth in my front yard, I heard the woodpecker above me. As I looked up to try and spot it, I saw three squirrels, all pretty young, all probably not too far removed from leaving a mother's nest, clambering around the tree. The woodpecker jumped from branch to branch, almost as if it were herding the squirrels, or maybe just trying to incite them. The squirrels, for their part, looked as if they had no idea what to do with the bird yapping at them.

Now, I'm not going to interfere with the outcome here, but who is likely to win the turf battle? Or with both sides live uneasily with each other?