woodpecker, behave

The large, modern house down the street now has metallic streamers hanging from the eaves, as well as a large blow up ball with eyeball shapes painted on it.

Apparently the woodpecker has been causing quite a ruckus.

It makes me laugh and laugh. But I'm pretty sure if it were my house I'd feel like a crazy person with the incessant knocking and pecking. Who knows what lengths I would go to in trying to rid myself of the woodpeckery nuisance.

(Photo courtesy of my wobbly left hand whilst trying to keep the pup from knocking me over.)

a woodpecker's treat

This photo is a little dark, but look for the black spot (to the right of the top left window). Can you guess what it is?

Today as I was wandering around the neighborhood with my pup, we heard a knocking sound. As we got closer to the sound we both stopped and looked around. Up on the side of this quite large, modern house was a red-headed woodpecker. Eating the house! There was a good size hole already, as if he'd been at it for a while.

knock knock. knock knock knock. Several feet around the hole looked like they had been painted over (had other woodpeckers tried this before?).

While I'm on the subject, is there anything better than a straightforward name like Woodpecker? It's like pancake, curling iron, and light bulb.

We watched for a minute, quite distracted from our mailbox marking and grass sniffing. I'm now wondering: is this common? Do people have to protect their homes from woodpecker infestations? It doesn't sound tasty, but perhaps paint chips mixed with just the right amount of siding and a hint of formaldehyde is a delicacy to the woodpecker.

Or, was he helping? Maybe the woodpecker was hard at work on their termite problem! Maybe they should quit their whining and just paint over the holes gratefully.