Category Archives: Woodpeckers

Anything to do with woodpeckers

Woodpeckers

Woodpecker Control

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I am so very clever to have outwitted a cat, that surely no woodpecker control will work on my superior bird mind.  Here I am, roosting just within the cat’s reach.  I flaunt my amazing abilities directly in the feline face.

It began so innocently, before I was even aware a cat lived here.  Woodpeckers, just like me, were searching for the most ideal place to nest and feast.  Some stuck to the woods, more secure in the tried and true tree trunks.  Some drummed high up off the ground, on building roofs, tentatively tapping on the very top of buildings to find a safe place to open up a hole and nest inside.  But, me, I love adventure.  I love a thrill.  I love to see just how far I can go, and then go a little further.  There is no woodpecker control where I am concerned.  I just am, and everyone else must deal with it.

I flew right under a porch, testing out each support beam until I found one with a pleasing enough hollow sound.  But, oh, so clever little me, I chose the perfect little spot to tear into right at the base of that beam.  With a sharp eye out for any predators, I used my elegant and wonderfully sharp and hard beak to open up a tiny crack.  Then, I peered inside to make sure my instincts were correct.  Oh, yes, it was perfectly safe inside.  With persistent tapping, I created a hole barely large enough to allow my little bird body inside.  And, then, I crawled inside and explored my new home.  Just as I thought, it was absolutely perfect for me.  Dry, warm enough, with a small enough hole to protect me and my young ones from most tenacious predators.  That is, if the predators were daring or even smart enough to pursue us, which I highly doubted.  The genius of it was, I could build my nest up high enough inside to fully protect the little woodpeckers, and if any predator stuck a paw inside, I could just retreat even higher into the hollow beam, and stay completely safe.

That’s when I found out about the cat.  It just makes me want to laugh.  They thought that stupid feline was good at woodpecker control?  Please.  It took a day before it even discovered my presence.  Even then, it was so confused about what to do with a bird that was so daring as to build the opening to its nest so close to the ground.  For another half-day, all it could do was sniff around, and try to put its scent on the beam.  As if that would make me leave.  I felt so daring around this dumb animal that I would even stick my head out of the hole when it was right there, and it didn’t do a darn thing!

No, these humans are going to have to do better than a cat to get rid of me.  Woodpecker control, indeed.

Woodpeckers

Woodpecker Removal

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I would have expected cats to be great at woodpecker removal.  I was wrong.  At least with our cats.  They are no help whatsoever.

We’ve lived in this house for eight years, and for five of those years we’ve had problems with woodpeckers.  I have no idea why they’ve chosen our house to attack.  Our home is pretty much like every other home on our block full of stucco- and brick-faced two-story houses.  The neighborhood is almost a decade old, and you can still tell which houses were built first by looking at the height of the trees in each yard.  We’re a subdivision with young trees and lawns still struggling to establish dominance over weeds.  So, I can’t figure out what would attract woodpeckers out to our little area of the world.  I assume they would be more interested in well-established neighborhoods, with lots of tall trees and foliage.

But, we have struggled with woodpecker removal nearly every year.  For some reason, our house gets attacked every spring.  By the end of the summer, we’ve patched up a lot of woodpecker holes and inspected our attic to make sure nothing else has crawled inside.  Many mornings, we wake up early to the drum-drum-tap-tap of a woodpecker drilling holes into our beloved home.

We’ve tried a lot of things, from the ugly giant plastic owl screwed onto our roof to spraying the birds with water anytime we hear them out there.  They ignore the owl and return once the water has dried.  Don’t tell anyone, but my husband’s gone out there with the air gun and shot pellets up at the birds in an effort to scare them away and let them know we mean business.  They still come back.  It’s like they know they’re protected under the law and my husband isn’t allowed to kill them.

And our cats are worthless at woodpecker removal.  The birds ignore the cats chattering and mewling on the ground.  I would have expected, however, that they would have at least kept the woodpeckers out of our house.

So, you can imagine how surprised we were when we walked in the house to find a woodpecker sitting on the kitchen floor.  It flew up onto a high plant shelf once it saw us, and then eyed us, irritated.  Our two cats were nowhere to be seen.  When we looked for the cats later, we found them sleeping soundly on our forbidden bed, happy as can be.

But, we still had a woodpecker in the house.  How had it gotten inside?  Had it been in here before?  All of a sudden, we were faced with removing a woodpecker from out of the house, not just off of the house.

I called Allstate Animal Control and we had a woodpecker removal technician come out to the house.  He admitted he’d never seen something like this happen before, either, but the woodpecker just sat there, on the plant shelf in my kitchen, watching us, proof that the unexpected does happen.  And, proof that cats are worthless at home protection.

Woodpeckers

Woodpecker Problems

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Who says woodpeckers are problems?  As a squirrel, I like to think of myself as an opportunist, and following the birds sure makes my life easier.  Look, I’m as happy as any other creature, living in the wild.  I’ve got my trees, my fruits and nuts, plenty of twigs and nesting materials.  I’ve got it good, right?  But, when I follow the birds, life gets even better!

Human nests are the absolute best.  They put out food for the birds and I get to feast to my heart’s content, after figuring out how to get at it, of course.  Oh, and the eggs!  Humans are so funny, cooing over any bird nest they find, feeding the mommy bird with seed and hoping to catch a glimpse of a baby bird hatching.  I just don’t understand the fascination with watching baby birds at the edge of the nest, mouths gaping open begging for mommy’s attention.  Eggs are for eating, not watching.

Every now and then, though, I get to follow a woodpecker.  Those birds will sometimes find a human nest that makes the most wonderful sounds when it pounds on the side.  With its beak, it will chip and tap away until it makes these holes everywhere.  Often it’s just looking for food or a mate, so the holes aren’t that big.  Well, they’re big enough for the humans to get mad.  I suspect the humans get mad at other things the woodpeckers do.  They stain the human nest with their droppings and I don’t think humans like the tapping sound.  So, the humans grumpily walk around the outside of their nest, yelling and upset at the woodpeckers, but the woodpecker usually comes back unless the humans do something drastic.  They think they have a woodpecker problem, but I think the woodpecker is doing me a favor.

Every now and then the woodpecker will make a hole just large enough for me to get inside.  If it’s not large enough to begin with, sometimes I’ll just rip and tear at it to make it slightly larger.  And then, oh, paradise awaits me3!  Those woodpecker holes let me gain access to a huge, warm den filled with nesting materials.  There is plenty of wood and plastic for me to gnaw on to keep my teeth down, sometimes there are boxes with human things inside and I like to explore.  And, it is a safe place to have my babies.  They just curl up in the warmth and quiet.  I can run in and out of the woodpecker holes to forage for food and come back and take care of them.  When they grow up, they’ll possibly end up using the same space for their own nests.

So, no, I don’t think woodpeckers are a problem.  I think they provide all kinds of wonderful opportunities for me!

Woodpeckers

Get Rid of Woodpeckers

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Woodpecker
A woodpecker causing damage to the side of a house.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

It is a beeeeautiful day to be alive – who on earth would want to get rid of woodpeckers? It’s sunny but not too warm, there are gentle breezes to soar upon, and lots of wonderful bugs flying and crawling everywhere.  The bushes are full of gorgeous bright berries.  Yes, siree, it is a marvelous day.

I stride to the end of the branch and cock my head.  I’m hungry, and there are so many choices before me.  I glide down to a nearby bush, grab a berry or two to swallow whole, and then get back to my tree to look for the best and most beautiful insects.  My eye spots a bee, zeroing in on a house, and I watch to see where it lands.  My wings spread and I swoop off my branch and onto the breeze, up, up.  My feet grip the side of the house and I grab the bee up in my beak.  Juicy!

Hmmmm.  I move my feet around on the house and take a tentative peck.  Yes, yes, that gives very nicely.  I cock my head again and assess my find.  First, my pecks are making delightful holes into a wall that gives way, not easily, but well enough.  If I work at it, I might just get through to the other side and find a warm cozy place to nest.  Second, I hear the happy sound of bees.  Obviously, they’ve decided to make this house their home as well.  Oh Ho!  A place to make my own with its own food supply.  Does it get any better than this?

Over the next few days, I breakfast on bright red berries in the morning and then snack on bees throughout the day as I make several holes in the walls, looking for a way through to the other side.  My droppings are making streaks of bright red and brown down the side of the house.  This is truly going to be my house.

Unfortunately, there may be other obstacles to overcome.  Not everyone enjoys my percussion as I try to tap my way through to the warm attic.  Somewhere in the house, a dog is barking at me as I proceed.  Every now and then, someone charges out of the house yelling about how to get rid of woodpeckers, but I just fly away until they go back inside, and then I resume my work.  Once I set my mind to something, I just can not let it go!  Besides, with a feast of bees and this glorious wall to tap full of holes, why would I want to go anywhere else?

Once a mouse climbed up and checked out one of my bigger holes.  I guess I’m not picky about my neighbors.  If a family of mice wants to use a hole to get into the attic, too, I guess that would be okay.  As long as they kept to themselves!  This is going to be a lovely neighborhood.  Unless, of course, someone decides to get rid of woodpeckers.

Woodpeckers

Get Rid of Woodpeckers

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get rid of woodpecker    
        It is a beeeeautiful day to be alive – who on earth would want to get rid of woodpeckers?  It’s sunny but not too warm, there are gentle breezes to soar upon, and lots of wonderful bugs flying and crawling everywhere.  The bushes are full of gorgeous bright berries.  Yes, siree, it is a marvelous day.

            I stride to the end of the branch and cock my head.  I’m hungry, and there are so many choices before me.  I glide down to a nearby bush, grab a berry or two to swallow whole, and then get back to my tree to look for the best and most beautiful insects.  My eye spots a bee, zeroing in on a house, and I watch to see where it lands.  My wings spread and I swoop off my branch and onto the breeze, up, up.  My feet grip the side of the house and I grab the bee up in my beak.  Juicy!

            Hmmmm.  I move my feet around on the house and take a tentative peck.  Yes, yes, that gives very nicely.  I cock my head again and assess my find.  First, my pecks are making delightful holes into a wall that gives way, not easily, but well enough.  If I work at it, I might just get through to the other side and find a warm cozy place to nest.  Second, I hear the happy sound of bees.  Obviously, they’ve decided to make this house their home as well.  Oh Ho!  A place to make my own with its own food supply.  Does it get any better than this?

            Over the next few days, I breakfast on bright red berries in the morning and then snack on bees throughout the day as I make several holes in the walls, looking for a way through to the other side.  My droppings are making streaks of bright red and brown down the side of the house.  This is truly going to be my house.

            Unfortunately, there may be other obstacles to overcome.  Not everyone enjoys my percussion as I try to tap my way through to the warm attic.  Somewhere in the house, a dog is barking at me as I proceed.  Every now and then, someone charges out of the house yelling about how to get rid of woodpeckers, but I just fly away until they go back inside, and then I resume my work.  Once I set my mind to something, I just can not let it go!  Besides, with a feast of bees and this glorious wall to tap full of holes, why would I want to go anywhere else?

            Once a mouse climbed up and checked out one of my bigger holes.  I guess I’m not picky about my neighbors.  If a family of mice wants to use a hole to get into the attic, too, I guess that would be okay.  As long as they kept to themselves!  This is going to be a lovely neighborhood.

Woodpeckers

Woodpecker Removal

woodpecker removal
When will my people finally DO something and call a woodpecker removal service???  As a cat, I own this place.  I know all the best napping spots, the warmest windows to sit in, and exactly how to annoy the dog.  It is most upsetting to hear this constant tap-tap-tapping on the roof, on the walls.  That noise invades my beautiful dreams of chasing bubbles and nibbling cat nip. 

            You cannot imagine how crazy I get, staring out the window at the source of that awful noise.  There it is, a beautiful big bird, a woodpecker, listening to the scrabblings of spiders in the walls and taking out little notches from the house.  I chatter and try to climb the window, but the bird doesn’t even care.  It just goes about its business like I’m not even there.  If only I could get outside and climb that wall!

            It is definitely time to get some woodpecker removal people out here.  Even the stupid dog is starting to go crazy.  Admittedly, it’s fun to watch him jump and bark at the ceiling.  He runs around in circles, ears laid back, yipping and whining.  Sometimes his barks even scare the bird away long enough for me to settle back down and close my eyes for a bit.  But, then, that annoying scrabble as the woodpecker lands on the house again, the tip-tap-tip-tap starts up, and then he goes at it in earnest.  TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!!  Really, how is a cat supposed to stretch, quietly knead the blankets on the bed, yawn and sleep when this racket is going on? 

            And, I doubt my people have even thought of what could happen next.  Never mind the awful noise, and the smelly bird droppings.  The holes in the house will probably be a pain to fix, but they’d better fix them, because those holes will let in all sorts of other creatures.  Spiders, bugs, squirrels, mice . . . wait a minute!  Hmmm, if some of THOSE get in here, tasty, tasty meals await me!  Ah, the thrill of chasing a mouse from room to room, catching it, letting it go and run through the children’s room with whatever diseases it’s carrying, catching it again, toying with it before I finally chomp down on the delicious little creature . . .

            On second thought, I really hope my people don’t get around to woodpecker removal.  Those holes the woodpecker leaves behind could really work out in my favor!