Birds buddies

[MrTom]

I have a mess of these guys hanging around my suet log this spring. This brute showed up solo this morning. There has been a couple pairs here but not yet today. Man, these are beautiful birds.

 

[Whokalouie]

They are here in the winter too, I like watching those Pileated woodpeckers.

 

[MeatMachine]

I have them here all year long.

 

[MrTom]

They're here all year long too, I just don't feed them during the summer months.

 

[MeatMachine]

The way they squawk you would think you’re in a jungle or something.

 

[anonymouscowherd]

They are relatively thick around me and @Ninering62 . We see/hear several just about any time were huntin or on the range at his place.

 

[bronko220002]

I see them quite often in NC PA but not too often at home.

 

[deermanok]

Always a treat to see and hear them.

 

[WP79Vet]

We have a pair of them on our MT property. We don't see them too often, but we sure hear them - pounding on trees as well as squawking.

 

[4stringdude]

I see them frequently at my Southern Indiana hunting property. I never imagined they would visit a suet feeder.

 

[Boxlock20]

I have a mess of these guys hanging around my suet log this spring. This brute showed up solo this morning. There has been a couple pairs here but not yet today. Man, these are beautiful birds.

I hate the infernal things, we got one boring holes in our home’s trim! Can’t get my air rifle on it as it flies as soon as I open a door.

 

[ENCORE50A]

I hate the infernal things, we got one boring holes in our home’s trim! Can’t get my air rifle on it as it flies as soon as I open a door.

Get a fake woodpecker and put it up there. It'll stop that.

 

[MeatMachine]

I hate the infernal things, we got one boring holes in our home’s trim! Can’t get my air rifle on it as it flies as soon as I open a door.

I wouldn’t shoot them because they are a endangered species. If you did you might get in some deep

 

[WP79Vet]

I wouldn’t shoot them because they are a endangered species. If you did you might get in some deep

Lol.... In my book an "Endangered Species" is ANY critter that damages my house or preys on our cats and dogs....!

Seriously, there are species which are truly endangered, and I wholeheartedly do whatever I can to protect them. Here in the Northwest wolverines, grayling, lynx, ferrets, and some species of swans are among the many that need protection.

Reality, though, is that the Endangeed Species Act is now mostly: 1) A welfare pipeline for biologists, environut organizations, and their captured government bureaucracies; 2) A vehicle for using government to fleece ordinary people; and 3) A vehicle for blocking or bankrupting activities that powerful political factions oppose. That's why species like wolves all over the NW, Montana's grizzlies, bull trout (in some OR and WA watersheds that I know very well), and others are still listed as endangered long after they are recovered to the point of becoming nuissances which are seriously overpopulated, and are having adverse effects on other species and their surroundings.

I'm writing this because hunters, fishermen, farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers, the traditional energy industries, and many others are squarely in the crosshairs of these political factions, and we need to fight back. A colleague at Pacific Northwest National Lab who is very politically connected to these factions (his dad was a prominent Idaho politician) once told me that the ESA is a cherished strategy for eliminating hunting and gun ownership: "If wolves destroy deer, elk, and moose populations, we can blame hunters and get rid of hunting seasons, most people will loose interest in guns, and then we can outlaw gun ownership too." Montana and Idaho have successfully implemented controlled hunting for wolves, which is the preferred legal approach to dealing with outdated/politicized ESA listings, and it appears to be working well. In WA, OR, and CA, the factions that are using the ESA for political purposes are too dominant to allow implementation of REAL biology or common sense related to endangered species.

The alternative for dealing with problem animals when common sense / REAL biology can't prevail is SSS: "Shoot, shovel, and shut up", and a lot of desperate farmers and ranchers are taking that route. Takes a whole lotta diggin to implement SSS with a grizzly, though... so I hope that the Montana leaders who are pushing for resumption of grizzly hunting are successful: Grizzlies are now common throughout the western half of Montana, and are being seen pretty regularly in places that are closer to the ND border than to the nearest mountain. I recently watched game camera footage of SEVEN adult grizzlies in a single group on some ranch that's many miles from the nearest mountain. Grizzly sightings are weekly events INSIDE little towns that are a few tens of air miles from my house, two years ago a woman was killed by a grizzly at a campground inside the town of Ovando, and an archery-only hunting district nearby sees little use because there are just too many grizzlies. When I fished the Blackfoot River in that area last summer, there were big, fresh grizz tracks in the sand underneath the bridge that provides access to the river where I fished. It added spice to a great day of fishing in two wonderful roadless miles of the river upstream, and I would have actually enjoyed the chance to see a grizzly while I fished.... if I knew that the bear respected me because humans hunting grizzlies was part of its recent life experience. People around here tell me that as soon as MT implemented a wolf season, wolf sightings became extremely rare, even though MT wolf populations are relatively stable.

 

[ENCORE50A]

Lol.... In my book an "Endangered Species" is ANY critter that damages my house or preys on our cats and dogs....!

The fake woodpecker DOES work. We have Pileated all over the place here and just once one tried one of the posts. The wife put up the fake and they've never tried it again. Our neighbor has some kind of expensive apple trees that the sap suckers want to "cribbage boarded". The wife gave him a fake to try and it completely stopped the problem.
They also love peanut butter.

 

[MeatMachine]

Lol.... In my book an "Endangered Species" is ANY critter that damages my house or preys on our cats and dogs....!

They can be annoying. I have some empty 55 gallon drums in my yard and when they start pecking on those it sounds like full auto gun fire.

 

[4stringdude]

The pileated woodpecker is not currently listed as a threatened or endangered species, although it is a protected species. I doubt that any conservation officer will be knocking on your door if you pop one.

 

[Boxlock20]

Lol.... In my book an "Endangered Species" is ANY critter that damages my house or preys on our cats and dogs....!

I’m with you! Going to try the fake woodpecker first. The ‘little pecker’ is attacking far too high for me to reach so I have hired a painter to repair the holes and paint all the house trim even though it really doesn’t need it yet. I’ll have him mount a fake woodpecker. $1700.00 plus materials to get rid of a woodpecker……crazy!

 

[rangerod]

I know a lot of turkey hunters use a pileated pecker call to get a tom to shock gobble.