Spring is in the air

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Drew99GT

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At least here. It got to 65 yesterday and looks to be on track for 70 today.

And the stupid flickers (large woodpeckers) that have invaded the front range of the Rockies over the past several years are starting their mating rituals - to include pecking away at EVERYTHING.

As I'm sitting on my deck enjoying a cup of coffee, all I hear is the males cackling away, followed by sporadic sounds of them "pecking"!

"cack cack cack hee hee heeeeee" followed by "ddddddddddddddddd" on a neighbors gutter, or mine.
 
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Do they make mating simulators that are electrified like the bug zappers?

Oddball somewhat disturbing "a friend of ours told us": While in college one of her professors had a bird house structure that he'd sit and watch finches enter. When the count got to some predetermined number, he'd throw a switch and electrocute them. When asked why he didn't just wire it to fry them upon entering ..he said that he wouldn't have the fun of counting them.
 
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Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Do they make mating simulators that are electrified like the bug zappers?


Neighbors have tried everything and nothing works.

When they are pecking away at my house, I open the window and scream and yell at them. Works better then the other deterrents people have used (like fake owls).
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
"cack cack cack hee hee heeeeee" followed by "ddddddddddddddddd" on a neighbors gutter, or mine.


I know that all to well! The past two or possibly three years one has made it his morning ritual to stop by my house before anything else in his day and hammer away at the gutter nearest my bedroom window! I've thought long and hard about getting up early and dealing with him but don't think I can without breaking the law. I don't know of any woodpecker deterants so just how long do these things live? There aren't that many that hang around here so I'm sure it is the same one.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
http://www.duncraft.com/Birds-Away-Attack-Spider-Woodpecker-Deterrent-P3131C0.aspx

These flickers are not the little tiny woodpeckers people think of. They're large birds.

They give the finger to these measly deterrents people use!


Now, if your cat had claws... Well, I suppose you could get a pet raptor. How about an ultra-impressive and very efficient Harpy Eagle? That beast got claws that are longer than those of a brown bear, and they can carry away a medium sized monkey. Harpy Eagles will dispose of woodpeckers, and possibly of small children, in no time. Maybe a falcon would do. You would be The Falconer!
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Originally Posted By: mechtech2
Are they protected by law?
And are they protected from you?


From another website. Don't know it for fact but at least one other person has told me the same thing.

Quote:
Woodpeckers are protected species under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. There is no woodpecker season as with other game birds like ducks, geese, etc. If you shoot the woodpecker, you will be breaking the law.

The following site gives some ways to chase them off.

http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/woodpeck.htm

A word to the wise, more than one person has seriously damaged their home trying to shoot woodpeckers.


But part of me says its one darn woodpecker do him in and don't ask don't tell.
 
I have a good pellet gun but its a stout springer and for the life of me I can't get a scope mount to stay put. Pretty fair with open sights to 30 yards though. :-) It'll just break the sound barrier on a cold day so guessing its around 1120 FPS. with 7.9 grain pellets.

I even tried a one piece mount with a grub screw that should lock down into a hole in the top of the barrel it still moved. The recoil of these spring guns is hard to describe. Its only about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch but its almost instant. Gforces must be really high as I cleaned the dove tails red lock tighted the screws and drilled for the grub. It still moved enough to elongate the hole and bend the grub slightly.

Edit to add. The first scope I mounted was air gun rated from GAMO. It lasted about 50 shots and the reticle turned almost 45 deg counter clockwise.
 
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Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
At least here. It got to 65 yesterday and looks to be on track for 70 today.

And the stupid flickers (large woodpeckers) that have invaded the front range of the Rockies over the past several years are starting their mating rituals - to include pecking away at EVERYTHING.

As I'm sitting on my deck enjoying a cup of coffee, all I hear is the males cackling away, followed by sporadic sounds of them "pecking"!

"cack cack cack hee hee heeeeee" followed by "ddddddddddddddddd" on a neighbors gutter, or mine.


Four words... I WILL TRADE YOU! It's colder than a witches teet up here...
 
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