Subject: RE: Woodpecker damage
Date: Sep 12 15:05:03 1995
From: Eugene Hunn - hunn at u.washington.edu


There a story -- perhaps apochryphal -- about JJ Audubon (or maybe it was
Wilson) who captured an Ivory-billed Woodpecker and kept it in his hotel
room while studying it for a sketch. While he was out one day it is said
to have excavated a hole in the wall through which it made its escape.

Gene Hunn.

On Tue, 12 Sep 1995, Michelsen, Teresa wrote:

>
> There is little you can do about this. Woodpeckers will excavate wood
> houses if there is a shortage of tall snags around to do their thing. One
> long-term solution is to leave dead snags around rather then cutting them
> down. Even in an area with lots of dead snags, if a woodpecker takes a
> shine to your house it's hard to discourage them. Sometimes, they just like
> the sound of whatever they're pecking at. Or the wood on your house may be
> softer and easier to make holes in than the trees around. My husband's
> family had a cabin in the Tehachapi mountains in California and the acorn
> woodpeckers made so many holes in it that the siding just had to be replaced
> every so often. Nothing they tried worked. I kind of like the sound of a
> woodpecker pecking, myself. Of course, ours aren't quite this destructive!
>
> Teresa Michelsen
> temi461 at ecy.wa.gov
>