Flipping the Bird

I was working from home recently, at my sewing table/desk in the guest room. The windows were open and I could hear the birds chirping and the bees buzzing. I love that some volunteer goldenrod has planted itself in this garden bed. It starts growing in late August and really fills in between all the plants that have already died for the year.

Being a late summer/early fall flower, it attracts a lot of bees and other pollinators at a time when there isn't much else for them to eat.

But suddenly, instead of happy chirping, I heard what sounded like a birdy rumble outside. A bluebird and a woodpecker were obviously having a loud argument in the Hawthorne tree just outside the window. There was some kind of turf war going on. The woodpecker eventually flew off in a huff.

Then I heard tapping. Very quiet tapping, at least from my vantage point inside. It went on for at least a minute. We snuck around from the back door to the front to see that same woodpecker, apparently taking out his aggression on our front facade. See him there?

In about two minutes, this little jerk put three sizable holes (two pictured here) in our door! From what I was able to surmise from reading why a woodpecker might have done this, it was likely the conclusion of the turf war, as a way to send a big FU to the bluejay. And a big FU to us too.

We filled the holes quickly to discourage the bird from coming back, but I don't think this woodpecker was trying to build a hole for a nest or find insects, so hopefully he has admitted defeat and moved on. Unfortunately for us, matching the paint is going to be challenging. Apparently I failed to note the color in my 2017 post when we last had our exterior painted. Honestly I may never had known the color. I'm going to scavenge our basement paint collection and hope I can find it. If not, it may require a lot of paint swatches just for a repair no bigger than a quarter.

And this isn't even the biggest pest problem we're experiencing right now. Stay tuned...