In one of my wild frenzies this last spring, I built a flicker house and tacked it right under a spot that looked like a cartoon woodpecker hole in my wall. It seems flickers like to feel like they “made” their house, and so I even filled it with sawdust (thanks, Todd!).
Today, we heard the relatively quiet tapping on the wall, and guess what I saw? Well, don’t guess. Just look at the picture.
<update>
For reasons unclear, the flicker has decided not to move in yet. He’s, in fact, trying to drill holes in other places on our house. It doesn’t go well (being a relatively solid house) and he moves on. Now, why he isn’t moving into his Audubon Society-approved, custom-built, deluxe, solid-wood cabin that I built with my own hands for him… is beyond me. Maybe I should shoot him.
</update>
<another update>
That was a joke about shooting him.
</another update>
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Very cool! Flickers have such interesting markings. Unfortunately, I used to see them up close when my old cat used to catch them.
Funny, I was at the local hillbilly Lowe’s here, and the guy tending the birdfood section got all crazed when I said I was looking for flicker food (peanut, suet cakes). “If it were up to me, I’d shoot them with a shotgun” he said.
It’s sort of rung in my head like a weird French movie since then. Shoot them? You would like to shoot all flickers? Wh… you… with a shotgun?… why on earth…? With a shotgun? And you work in the birdfood section?
Hmm. Maybe the Lowe’s guy is sick of them drilling holes in his house? Perhaps you should tell him about all the ants they eat.
Some friends of ours out in the gold country had lots of woodpeckers that would drill holes in their wood siding and stick acorns in the holes. Kind of cute until there got to be hundreds of holes, all letting water seep in when it rained.