Deterring Woodpeckers

Deterrent on south side

Each fall, we have a few juvenile woodpeckers that seem to get confused between our house and the trees that they should really be pecking on...so each year, I head to the dollar store to find some cheap, colorful, shiny things to hang off the house for a few months...

This year, while I was on the roof cleaning gutters, I also hung the deterrents on the eave near the front of the house (where we have had pecking in the past). The wind usually pulls them down by the end of the fall, but by then the woodpeckers have moved on.

We have a spot that they created a hole at one year that is still only filled but not repainted yet (it is in a high spot on a slant so the extension ladder on unstable ground is scary) but I hope to get up there and paint it in the next few weeks when we get some dry days again.

Unlike some people, I am not willing to hurt the woodpeckers to get them to stop this behavior (not to mention that it is illegal to do so), so this little bit of effort is worth not having to fill holes in our house.

Deterrent on north side

Seems like it wasn't an issue the first two years we were here, but I hate to wait until I hear them pecking before starting to do anything about it since they can do some serious damage in a very short time. These are preemptive strikes for me....LOL

New Visitor

Flicker

Saw this girl (I am assuming a girl since she is missing some of the coloring normally on a boy, although it might just be a juvenile) in the backyard hoping from terrace to terrace looking for food. I haven't seen her in any trees, just on the ground.

Northern Flicker

I hope to see her more as the season goes and perhaps we'll even find out that she is a he...LOL

Bird List Update

Just a few days after writing this post, thought I hadn't seen one of these at the birdfeeder yet, but then the next day, one shows up. Managed to get a shot, even though it is not too great.

Varied Thrush

Winter Robin

This guy showed up this morning on the blue spruce out front and just sat there for a long time. Long enough for me to get several shots. You can see his colors are muted right now but he is still beautiful.

Identifying Birds At The Bamboo Lagoon

I did a post similar to this when we had our house in NC and several bird feeders in the backyard. It is always interesting to me to identify them and hear their songs and realize how familiar their sounds are.

So here at The Bamboo Lagoon, the bird population has started to diversify and figured it was time to at least get a list started of the daily visitors. We are limited a bit by the fact that we only have the one feeder and it only has black sunflower seeds in it. This list includes those that aren't just at the bird feeder but have been seen in the yard in general.
 
White-crowned Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Oregon Junco
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Western Scrubjay
Stellar's Jay
Cooper's Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Rufous Hummingbird

That is it for now...the short list. I hope to see more as spring comes and they get used to seeing the feeder here. If you have time, you should check out the Sound tab on the bird's pages linked above and hear what they all sound. It is pretty cool that they have these recordings.

Birdies At The Bamboo Lagoon

Finally got my shepherd's hook and sunflower seed feeder put out for the song birds. It has been a while coming...and I am glad to finally have it out. It has taken a few days for anyone to realize it is there but I saw my first goldfinch on it this morning so it won't be long, I am sure, before it is swarming!

I put it in the backyard on one of the lower terraces so I could see it from the kitchen window. I didn't want it too close to the plum trees as I have a very territorial scrub jay in those fruit trees and I didn't want it to scare away any of the song birds at the feeder.