Wood Peckers

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Striperhound

Talk about a loud bird when they are trying to attract a mate. I have one that sets up camp at 5:30 every morning on my stove pipe cap and makes a huge racket. It sounds like a machine gun and wakes my 2 year old up every morning. I must look like a crazy old man running outside with my bathrobe, cursing, throwing small stones at my stove pipe to get the little sucker to fly away. I have resorted to keeping a small cup of landscape stones in the house so I have them handy when "woody" shows up. I swear to god this damn bird is taunting me now.

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because i mean to attract them and the more the better...

--->
the reason he's using your stove pipe is because maybe in your neighborhood all the "sounding tree's" have been cut down or have fallen down... which is the effect of civilization invading their territory. They are our termite eaters and must be protected!
the yellow shafted flickers do some carpenter ants and lawn grubs.
anyways... the-
SOLUTION............
theres two approaches...0ne:you go to stop and shop or several different grocery stores ok ,and talk to the butcher if you don't see it
and ask for beef suet... which is relatively cheap stuff. Then you either hang some green wire mesh squares (@ walmart) that are like a six inch wide cube....where they will see it...(especially in the friggan rain)
or two:\
take an old oak log section with short stubby branches
(for perches)
and drill some 2 inch holes in it from top to bottom to
cram full of suet and hang it where they'll see it.

with that acomplished:

they will be so busy taking little chunks and stuffing them in choice personal wood pecker holes on their favorite tree ...
(cant do that to a stove pipe)
that they will switch drumming spots to protect their new stash of (squirrelled away) beef suet chunks...and attract their new mate to that NEW tree instead of your stove pipe.

then everyone will get their beauty sleep again.

[Striperhound]

Great Stuff Raven. This woodpecker lives in a huge 100 year old oak tree across the street. It has several holes in the tree that it frequents. I just uses my stove pipe in the am to get its groove on and let others know he is king of that neighborhood. Very interesting bird to watch just wakes up the kids.

[striperman36]

Come down to Hobe Sound in the Spring.
The damn things use the metal telephone poles, you can hear them from several hundred feet away!!!

I have tried everything up here to discourage them not to use my stove cap as a sounding board. Fortunately it only lasts for several weeks in the spring, once it finds a 'mate' it settles down. There is nothing I have found to do to discourage them.

If you were looking for some what would you do?

[keeperreaper]

Pellet gun

[Raven]

i had one doing the same thing is why i know....

every friggan morning @ 5:30 am ratta tatta TAT on the friggan gutter
outside the bedroom window....wakin us up..

this i did for my hardworkin wife...
and i do everything imaginable to allow her to sleep in
because she works like 65 hours a week....

i even have to box up the parrot (huge tv box)
(so he thinks its still nightime)
til she finally gets up

or else ....he starts "his bitchin and moaning..."
ruining her sleep too...
afterwards he gets let outside to fly wild and free.

i'm always up @ first light....see.

anyways....
back to wood friggan peckheads...
....
but once i kept the suet -log loaded and or filled
end of problem.
costs like....4 -5 bucks every 2 weeks.
as seen here:

[Raven]

to go running around in (real smooth bark)

and he has a blast so when he comes in
he's as tired as a "well run dog"...
and starving... heh heh

heres the little bass turd...