House Project: Death To All Woodpeckers!

We went up Friday evening, partly to see if Richard the Water Boy (yes, that's how he answers the phone) had gotten to the pressurization pump, which was still making water into a bucket under the overflow valve. It appears not--his plan is to reduce the pump pressure to 55 psi from 65 psi, in the hopes that spikes in pressure won't go over the overflow relief level.

However, we were pleased to see that the badly cracked rear driveway apron had been cut and...well, at least removed from the driveway, if not from the property.


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We went back today, and we were very pleased to see that the new concrete had been poured and stamped.


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It is still drying. They also fixed a number of less severe cracks as well. Our builder is going to put a drainage channel to remove water from the area between the hillside and the foundation--which I think now should have been done in the first place. In a few more days, the concrete guys will come back, power wash all the concrete, and apply a sealant coat to make it shiny and pretty.

However, the big surprise when we arrived this evening was some rather odd marks that at first my wife thought were bees swarming on the south face of the house.


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My wife saw the hole in the screen and thought that someone might have tried to break into the house. Okay, okay, make fun of us city folk, but I did point out to her that if someone was going to break into the house, they wouldn't attack the upper left corner of the screen--nor would they chew up the wood that far above the ground. My guess was that some bird attacked the house--and then my wife noticed that only the windows with blinds inside were being attacked. I noticed that only the south facing windows were attacked. Apparently, a window with darkness inside didn't upset the birds.

So I started making some calls. One of my neighbors said, "Woodpeckers. They chewed up the outside of our house a couple of days ago. My daughter went after them with a shotgun. She didn't hit 'em, but it scared 'em off." He recommended that I stake them out, and blast them out of the air. I have some skeet loads that should be heavy enough for woodpeckers, and light enough that a richocheting pellet shouldn't be a hazard to the house. (Obviously, you scare the birds away from the house, then blast them--the house is not an appropriate backstop.)

We'll have to replace at least one of the screens, maybe two, but these are all standard windows. The builder still has to finish the exterior trim paint, so a little patching and repainting after we have disposed of the pests won't be a big problem.

It is beautiful up there--and the natural grasses are coming out in a big way.


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Last house project entry.

UPDATE: It appears that I am going to have to persuade the woodpeckers to leave my house alone:

Woodpeckers are federally protected migratory species, and as such are subject to both state and federal laws. The legal requirements under each set of laws apply. A federally issued depredation permit is required before any person may take, possess or transport migratory birds for depredation control purposes. No permit is required to scare or herd depredating migratory birds other than federally listed threatened or endangered species, bald or golden eagles (50 CFR 21.41).

UC Davis has a rather discouraging list of approaches for making the woodpeckers leave your home alone; it sounds like noise or moving objects is the only legal way to do so that actually works. We were going to hang up wind chimes at some point; maybe we will do this a bit sooner.