ROCKPORT, Mass. (AP) — Rockport residents have a history of fighting off invaders, but not this time.
During the War of 1812, townsfolk in the tiny fishing village hurled rocks at British soldiers using their stockings as slings. Now, they’re slinging trash bags and towels over the side mirrors of their cars to protect them from a destructive and determined pileated woodpecker.
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I've got one of those suckers working over an old pecan stump in the backyard as I'm typing this out. It's by far the biggest woodpecker I've ever seen, just a little over a foot tall, and it's not ratta-tat-tatting like any other woodpecker, it's just ripping chunks of dead wood out of the stump and flinging it over its back.
They used to be very rare but the Emerald Ash Borers have been a bonanza for them.
ReplyDeleteThe look like they are as big as chickens, but most of that is feathers.
The one (or two) hanging out around here aren't really bulky, but they are tall compared to all the other birds here.
DeletePut up a suet feeder for an up close look! I have a couple kinds of woodpeckers that visit me in ETN. They all love the suet.
DeleteSounds like what we in the mountains of NC call a wood hen. I think the real name is piliated or something similar
DeleteOl' Woody can really make a racket, especially if a rival comes around and the screech-fest begins...
ReplyDeleteAnd as the damned bird is classified as an endangered species, there's nothing that can be done( like shooting at them). I've had my wooden shed riddled by these bastards.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in that area. Rockport is an idyllic seaside town, woodpeckers or not.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Rob. Back in my hippie days 50 years ago I used to pack up my '72 Beetle in North NJ on holiday weekends and head up to Rockport on Cape Anne. Those were great mellow days in a beautiful area. I looked forward to visiting one shop where they sold softball sized geodes for a couple of bucks each. Too bad all of Massachusetts has turned into a Liberal shithole.
DeleteSeen but one in my sixty years. Was camping at Burney Falls and one came into the campground. It started whacking on a half dead cedar and it was quite the racket. Made quite the spectacle as they are pretty rare in that part of the country.
ReplyDeleteAs for strange insurance claims: Mom came home from shopping with a huge ‘u-shaped’ dent in the middle of the hood of the family Dodge Dart. Said a horse sat on it! Our agent burst into laughter when she called him up to make the claim.
I used to hike, the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania every Memorial Day, and Labor Day. The camping store At the end of the trail for $5 would allow you to park in his lot, and for $15 each, he would fill up his van with hikers and drive them 30 miles to the trailhead. At the end of the hike, you would just get back in your car and drive off. Those inexperienced, would leave their cars right at the end of the hiking trail andnot pay the additional $5 to park in the lot. Porcupines would gnaw through the front brake line hoses, and after the three day weekend, they would come to their cars with no brakes. Since it was either Labor Day or Memorial Day, nothing was open, so they had to wait till the next day to have their car towed to a service station to have the brake hoses repkace .
ReplyDeleteThe Pileated is a cool critter,in theory now the largest woodpecker in North America as the ivory billed woodpecker in theory extinct.
ReplyDeleteI like to believe way out in the north east kingdom and places like it the ivory bill stills still exist.
I believe the last Ivory Bill sighting was in deep woods Louisiana, but that's been years.
DeleteEd
There's rumors of Ivory Billed Woodpeckers in the swamps of Southern Louisiana. They need huge tracts of dead standing pines for their nesting and feeding needs.
DeleteWe have several species of woodpecker here. One of them is the pileated woodpecker, You don't see them often, but when you do, those birds are HUGE. Maybe a foot tall. When they fly off through the woods, they look like an airplane.
ReplyDeleteWe don't mind them until, on Saturday morning, bright and early, they start "drumming" to attract the ladies. That is nice, 'cause, you know, we all have needs. But Dude, not on our down spout outside my bedroom window. Please!
We have both kinds of woodpeckers hanging around my stump farm. Pileated Woodpeckers, the size of a large magpie or small ravens, they are. Spectacular, BIG, beautiful birds.
ReplyDeleteI'm 80-100 miles southwest of you, surrounded by woods and farms.
Personally I'm pissed at the blue bird who fights his reflection in the mirror of my truck . I've got bluebird crap all over the side of the pickup.
ReplyDeleteI get the same thing with male cardinals at work spring/summer - fighting my truck mirrors and shitting all over as they fight. Hard to do anything with them during the week when everyone is there, but they may encounter an air rifle one weekend. Fucking fuckers.
DeleteEd
My blue Toyota has bluebird shit stripes on both sides (again). I thought they were done, so cleaned the truck, couple days later, they find MOAR bad bluebirds to combat in my mirrors.
DeleteAs a young murderer ( '60's), I had a Benjamin 22, pneumatic pellet gun, it was a death wand. As I grew up, I figured out to let the critters live, they had enough problems on their plates.
Now, only critters that are a threat to my cat/dogs/chickens are on the shoot on sight list.
Armadillos get a pass, they are only dangerous to grubs and, maybe, voles/moles.
Armadillos carry leprosy and will dig holes all over your property.
DeleteI never saw one around here until last year, now I see at least a couple that have been road-killed along Hwy 52 every time I go to Portland, so they're rapidly spreading into my area.
There's a woodpecker working on a cypress tree a few neighbors up from me... I can't see him but in the mornings he's as steady as an old typewriter working on that tree..
ReplyDeleteJD
My Dad used to call them "Headapeckers".
ReplyDeleteNeed some video of this bird doing his thing. Would be entertaining to watch and hear.
ReplyDeleteHeltau
Up here in North Maine those bastids are wreaking havoc with their incessant pecking on power company poles.
ReplyDeleteThey've damn near cut some pole completely through.
The theory is that they are drilling for bugs that the hum of the power lines sound like.
New poles are being made of fiberglass.
We have a pair in the trees around the field where our home is located. The rest of the valley has a couple of more and you can hear them drumming in the spring. Very cool to watch them dig for bugs and dead logs are deconstructed with great efficiency.
ReplyDeleteI saw this bird first in Brazos Bend state park in south Texas, on my first real date with my current wife. We were amazed. Later, we ran into a boy scout troop that told us what we were seeing.