Woodsy Woodpeckers

Autumn in the Spring Creek greenbelt is a time of wind and dancing leaves. It's a good time for photographers, too, and my husband and I go on short expeditions through this bit of greenery here in the heart of our city. It's a time when ghosts of sounds play tricks on your ears and squeaking branches pretend to be hidden wildlife.

A strange creaking sound echoed from the trail -- a noise like a branch shifting and perhaps about to break. I paused and looked at Bruce. "Did you hear that?"

We tiptoed around the bend, eyes on the trees. A flash of gray and red inched along the branch, paused, and resumed its business. Rrrratatatataatatat! Mystery solved: our creaking branch was a downy woodpecker.

Woodpeckers are large birds, members of the flicker family. About 20 species are present in North America, living in open woods, farm country, near forest edges, orchards, or groves of tall trees in open country.

These beneficial birds go after wood boring insects and other garden pests., drilling their way into tough wood to uncover tree damaging larva. Their bright coloration and efficient insect predation usually make them a very welcome visitor to backyards.

Usually.

Occasionally, woodpeckers can also go bad... and they do it spectacularly! From mild-mannered perchers they become drum fiends, tapping and hammering on every likely surface they can find to impress a future mate. "Me big bird!" the drumming says. "Good Hunter of Bugs." When they do it in the middle of the night, you wish they'd go impress someone else for awhile.

Perhaps the most classic case of "bad bird" woodpeckers involved the Space Shuttle in 1995, Convinced that the massive fuel tanks were hideouts for tasty Alien Bugs and were top-notch woodpecker nesting sites, the busy birds drilled numerous holes in the surface of the orange tanks. undeterred by a plastic owl, rubber snakes and other traditional woodpecker-removal devices. Putting a net around the shuttle finally discouraged them.

Foods that attract woodpeckers are mostly foods that attract other birds to your yard. One of their favorite treats is suet (a good food to put out during winter), but they also love acorns, nuts, fruit, grapes, sunflower seeds, berries (including cherries) and pine seeds. Provide plenty of perching space around your feeders. Woodpeckers like to dart in, take a couple of bites, and flit off.

You can build woodpecker houses (but I haven't heard how successful these are). Many woodpeckers prefer to excavate a dead or rotting trees for their nest holes.

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