A Puzzlement

I spotted these scratches on this tree in our yard a couple of days ago.

I have no idea what caused them. A midget bear marking its territory? A tiny dear scratching its antlers? A woodpecker with a dull bill?

I posted these to an online group and they were split better a buck deer scratching its antlers, although this is a larger tree than usual for that, or squirrels eating lichen off the bark. We do have quite a few squirrels about the place.

It was suggested that I put a trail cam out there to see. So I did. And there was nothing on the memory card. Nothing. Seems the batteries died. So I replaced the them and am waiting some more. But there do not seem to be any new marks. So I may have missed it.

🦌  🐿  🦌  🐿  🦌  🐿  🦌  🐿  🦌

Above is the best image on the trail cam. A female White Tailed Deer and thus no antlers for tree scratching. I also got a an even worse image of a squirrel, not even blog worthy (and it wasn't on the tree in question).

𐂂 𐂂 𐂂 𐂂 𐂂

So that didn't help much, and the marks will likely remain a puzzlement.