Senior Moments

I used to like Woody Woodpecker.  I remember Woody Woodpecker cartoons when I was growing up and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  No matter what the odds, Woody always came out on top.

Then we moved to the Glade and I became acquainted with Pileated woodpeckers.  Pileated Woodpeckers are the largest woodpecker in most of North America.  Much of the reference material I read said that Pileated Woodpeckers are nearly as large as crows.  I think they grow even larger here in the Glade!

For the first few months we owned our house we were only able to come up here on the weekends.  We tried to get up here every weekend, but that wasn’t always possible.  One weekend we noticed that our wood house had some extra holes in it.  The woodpeckers had struck.

Pileated Woodpecker pairs stay together on their territory all year round.  They also tend to revisit their ‘drilling sites’.  So our problem was to find a way to discourage the woodpeckers from pecking on our house.

We did some internet research and found it was said that mirrors or bright strips of metal would keep the birds away.  There were definitely some disadvantages (such as the Homeowner’s Association) with either of those ideas.

We finally hit upon wind chimes as our anti-woodpecker weapon.  We now have several wind chimes around the house and they seem to be doing the job.  But yesterday I saw the character in the picture above at a big tree behind our house.  I’m going to keep my eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get any closer!