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The Kitchen Table

Woody is back!

14 years ago

For the last three years in a row, Jim and I have been rudely awakened by a really loud TAP TAP TAP at our bedroom window. We opened our door from the bedroom to the backyard, looked around the corner and it is a woodpecker, clinging onto the stucco, pecking at his reflection in our windows. The first time it was funny, the second time not so much. We prefer sleep over the antics of a mentally challenged bird.

That first year we went and bought one of those tacky plastic owls, strung him to the tree right by the window, and Woody went away. Hooter was removed. Last year, Woody found us again, and out came Hooter. Woody left again. Hooter fell out of the tree with the help of our then roommate's puppy, Alex. Hooter became a chew toy.

Woody returned yesterday, and Jim strung an earless and footless Hooter from the tree. Because Hooter had no ears, there was no more hole left to tie the string to, so the rope now goes through the top of Hooters head and down through where his feet should be, and he now guards the window horizontally. One would think a smarter bird wouldn't be fooled by the lounging Hooter, but Woody isn't too bright himself, trying for hours to peck his own face off.

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Comments (6)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years ago
That is hilarious, michelle! The mental image is truly funny!

We've had a woodpecker hammering on our chimney upon occasion. You can imagine what THAT sounds like coming out of the fire place and into our living room. I've learned that all I have to do is yell up into the fireplace and silence ensues. I wonder what that might sound like to the neighbors?
lazypup
14 years ago
We had a big male red bellied woodpecker that was constantly pecking on an outdoor aluminum light fixture or the downspouts..

I take a lot of photographs of birds and I have a friend who is an Ornithologist with the state univerity and I was relating the antics of this silly woodpecker to him...He told me it was not as silly as it seems..

Male woodpeckers attract a female by pecking and the louder he can peck the more attractive he is to the ladies..so male woodpeckers have now learned that if they peck on windows, downspouts or metal light fixtures it is much, much louder than pecking on a tree, and they feel more attractive... Who knew?

Many people also have problems with the sky being reflected in the glass of a window and birds fly into it not realizing it is a window.... There is a very simple trick to prevent bird strikes or keep woodpeckers off your window. Just get a piece of string and hang and old CD in the window, It will reflect light from outside and scare the birds away from the window.
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michelle_phxaz
Original Author
14 years ago
Lazypup, that is a good idea, since we put up film on our windows to keep the house cooler it is very reflective and more than one bird has met its demise. I like the CD idea, I will make some of those.

Do the birds have CDs that they especially don't like and will repel them more than others types of music? ;-)
sleeperblues
14 years ago
They hate Yannie's music
maire_cate
14 years ago
excellent suggestion sleeperblues - I was going to suggest Kenny G
jannie
14 years ago
I'm glad Woody is back. We have woodpeckers we see every year, they peck our next door neighbor's tree. They hang around our picture winow in front. They dive bomb the window. Thank Heavens they don't kill themselves!

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