I really do enjoy the birds we have here at the house throughout the year. I have a number of bird feeders and put suet out in the winter. Bird watching from the comfort of our warm cozy house is cheap entertainment. Lately we’ve had a visitor of the bird variety that I could do without.

woodpecker pecking the house

This little woodpecker has taken to taste testing our house. Hannah first discovered him and chased him away with a squirt gun. He never seems to peck at any one spot for long before he moves on to another. I gather that’s because he’s not finding anything worth while to eat. I suppose, to a wild animal, our house does look a bit like a tree – cedar brown with a green steel roof. Still, this is one bird friend that I can do without!

I recall as a child, living in Virginia, we had a woodpecker attack the house. The only problem then was that the house was covered in aluminum siding. Sounded a bit like a machine gun going off. This was in the mid-70’s and I think it gave my father flash backs of Vietnam.

Suggestions for scaring off this uninvited visitor are welcome!

Update: It turns out that my little visitor is not a woodpecker, but a BLUE JAY! Thankfully he seems to have moved on.