Posted on 03/22/2009 2:08:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The woodpecker normally prefers softwood deciduous trees...except in one south Tampa neighborhood.
"Oh my god I am so devastated", Brittany Jones told me when I met her outside her house. "You would think people would commit a crime and it's just a measly little bird."
Yes, a crime, a senseless act of vandalism. And Brittany isn't the only victim of their feathered friend. "I can't believe it actually happened," said neighbor J.R. Gaskin.
Car mirrors are now cracked and shattered, all the result of a woodpecker. Brittany Jones' mother, Dorothy, first spotted it. "I heard something pecking outside and I thought they were doing construction work. And I looked up and went, 'oh my god that's a woodpecker.'"
The red-crested fowl has been very busy, because in one south Tampa neighborhood near MacDill Airforce Base, he has hit at least six vehicles.
Thinking he is seeing another woodpecker in the vehicle's mirror, he has been breaking them out, which doesn't sit well with the victims. "I'm not too happy about it," Jennifer Lyle told me, "especially with this kind of vehicle you can't just replace the glass you have to replace the entire component which is kind of expensive."
Unfortunately, this is not unusual behavior. Woodpeckers have been known to peck at transformers as well as office windows. And not to make matters worse, but in this same south Tampa neighborhood, it seems the little vandal has just had a family. There are now baby woodpeckers in the area, prompting Brittany to say, "It's just ridiculous."
So how long will they be there? At least until nesting season is done, which could be another month. For now, residents are placing bags over their side mirrors so the woodpecker can't see his reflection.
Those people are insensitive to the needs of the woodpeckers.
Had cardinals do this constantly in Laud
Ivory Billed Woodpecker?
Peckers have rights too
at first i thought it was a pisstake... after watching the video.
funny clip.
Some people are so sheltered...."devestated"? A bit too much drama for the circumstances.
Brittney probably thinks a woodpecker is something from the days before batteries.
I had a California Oriole mistake his image in my car mirror one time for another Male Oriole. Quite a fight broke out, with the real bird losing. I would suppose his beak was too soft to break the mirror. The next day he was back and this time seemed to be deciding if he should fight or not. He never again actually attacked the mirror but would sit for hours chirping away and fluffing his feathers. Finally a female Oriole moved into the area and he quit messing with his buddy in the mirror and the pair produced several young Orioles. I started covering the car mirror in the spring after that when the car was parked.
“GUESS WHO!!”
;^)
Those are considered extinct. Pictured bird is a Pileated. Very similar, except for the bill color.
“Yeah, I can ’elp ya with ’im. I was hungry anyway.”
I just had $5000 of roof repairs and replacement of sheetrock and insulation due to a spotty woodpecker drilling a palm sized hole at the bottom of the roof vally on the front of my arechitectural shingled house! Water from rain poured into entry and garage! I bought a pellet rifle and have been practicing with it. Gonna terminate that sucker with extreme prejudice!
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