Saturday, January 7, 2012

Woodpecker Knocking

I was working in the basement the other morning when I thought I heard a knock at the door.  I stopped what I was doing and went upstairs to see who it was.  There was no one.  I went back to the basement and soon heard the knock again.  No one around, but I did hear the knock just before opening the door and I had a pretty good idea of what it was.  I waited upstairs until the knock came again and caught this Downy Woodpecker tapping away at the fascia board around my porch.

He took off when he noticed me looking out the window.

The woodpecker was busy exposing Carpenter Bee tunnels running inside the board.  This section of tunnel was opened several weeks ago, but I never caught sight of the bird.  The tunnels were cleared of everything edible, so I wasn’t expecting the woodpecker to return.

This time a different tunnel was under attack.  The larder looks full.  There are definitely some shiny insect parts showing through the holes.

I used some forceps to draw the bee closer to the opening.  Carpenter Bees spend the winter inside unused tunnels.  I imagine this guy will be woodpecker food before too long.

3 comments:

  1. Fascinating. I hope there isn't too much damage to your home!

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  2. We've had them in the boards that are around our garage door. I know they're not really too harmful to people but the constant buzzing freaks me out and I didn't want to have nests in the house. I finally got them to go away last spring using pieces of packing tape to cover their holes. Each time they'd try to start a new one, I'd cover it with the tape and spray bee-go-away stuff around it and they gave up after a while. I know it's not a permanent solution but I couldn't believe that they got so discouraged as to leave!

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  3. Hi Lois. Our house has enough irregularities that a few more won't make much of a difference.

    Hi BB. In the past, I've plugged their holes with bits of aluminum foil and forced them to move on. They were so entertaining this year that I just left them alone.

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