Henny Penny Farmette

This lovely Nuttall’s Woodpecker has returned this year, perhaps to watch its offspring peck away at our roof strut

It’s been a week of rat-ta-tat-tat-tating and I’m growing wearing of hearing it. The woodpecker’s sound ordinarily doesn’t bother me, except I know it is pecking the foam, widening the hole of an exterior beam supporting the roof of this old house.

While my husband is away visiting relatives and I’m trying to keep the place tidy, the woodpecker isn’t going along with the plan. It is making a mess on the porch that rivals the squirrels’ messes when nuts are in season.

The bird has pecked wood shavings that fall into a pile on the porch. Worse, it is also pecking out the dry foam that we sprayed into the holes. Stopping the woodpecker’s assault against our beam forced me to take drastic measures.

When I heard the pecking this morning, I circled around the back of the house and sneaked along the side to catch the bird in the act. Seeing me, it took cover in the nearby elm tree.

From the bird’s size, I believe it to be either a female or a juvenile Nuttall’s woodpecker. We had one here last year that I photographed high in the pine tree. See http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Nuttalls_Woodpecker/id

A screen bent to fit around the beam has deterred the woodpecker, at least for now

The solution, I think, might be a screen I found in a frame that clamps nicely over the two holes. Since securing the metal in place with screws, I haven’t heard a single rat-ta-tat-tat  . . . not even in the nearby pine or the elm trees.