Replies

1. 
   FrankB89 | Jun 08, 2002 03:51am | #1

   I don't have a solution to your problem, but I do know from first hand observation that when wild birds of many types zero in on a nesting site, the little instinct program in their brains goes into "lock" mode and they're not easily discouraged. Plug the hole and they'll likely drill another next to it.  You can do flashings, but that can be unsitely.  With woodpeckers, they may not return next year so you may talk your client into letting them complete this hatching cycle, fledge their offspring and THEN plug the holes and devise a preventative strategy to implement before next Spring.

   As to the toxicity of the wood;  I had a pair of woodpeckers bore a nest cavity into the top of a croesoted power pole one year, and rear 4 young ones.  However, the following year, starlings moved in.

    

1. 
   4Lorn1 | Jun 08, 2002 04:13am | #2

   Just brainstorming here but you might fill the hole with any of the epoxy fillers or restoration mixes, Abatron comes to mind as it is advertised in FHB, and capping the end off with a copper cap fitted to the end. I have seen these as a decorative feature. Repeated on the other beam ends, at least those visible from that side of the house, it would look like it was designed that way.

2. 
   OneofmanyBobs | Jun 08, 2002 12:37pm | #8

   Fake owls.

   A friend had lots of trouble with several kinds of birds.

   Owls scare them away. The new plastic decoys flap their

   wings and bob their heads. Don't know where you buy them,

   but they seem to work pretty well. They got ones you nail on

   the roof and ones that sit on a pole.

2. 
   MikeCallahan | Jun 08, 2002 04:41am | #3

   If the client is living there then consistent harassment will work most of the time. Lean out the window and shoo the bird. If the house is unoccupied, then a local animal center instructed me to leave the radio on. Woodpeckers hate radios she said. Put a small radio near where they want to whittle when you are away or leave a radio on in the house. Other people have tried to hang owl effigies as a scarecrow. I hear they work for pidgeons but maybe not flickers.

   To patch the hole in the log I would do a dutchman with similar wood. Make a piece that will fit in the hole and wedge tight. Glue it proud with some gorilla like glue and shave the plug flush when the glue dries.

   Mike

   We may be slow, But we're expensive.
3. 
   observer | Jun 08, 2002 05:02am | #4

   You might also want to check the condition of the main ridge member. Flickers aren't great excavators so usually choose wood that has been softened by weather or rot. Usually mate for life and return to the old nest site too.

1. 
   gosolar | Jun 08, 2002 06:17am | #5

   Make a flicker box next year.    Big box, faces southeast with a 2 1/2 " hole.  

   The plans are on the internet.   I would love to have a woodpecker or flicker nesting in my house.  This year  I put a brick in a starling hole above my gutter that worked well.   Just about killed myself crawling on my 30' roof with my bathrobe on though.

   Eric

1. 
   TheOldCynic | Jun 08, 2002 07:04am | #6

   Plans for a Flicker house on the 'net...

   Sounds intriguing - Do you happen to have a URL for those plans?

   Doc

1. 
   joeh | Jun 08, 2002 07:35am | #7

   http://vivisimo.com/search?query=flicker+nest+box&se=Yahoo%2CMSN%2CFast%2CNetscape%2CWiseNut%2CLooksmart

   Pick one, pick ten.

   If the "Search" is feeling cooperative, Woodpeckers have been discussed thoroughly at least once each spring for a long time.

   Edited 6/8/2002 12:53:26 AM ET by JoeH

1. 
   TheOldCynic | Jun 09, 2002 07:23am | #9

   Re: Web address for nest box for flicker

   Much appreciated - Any info I have on building nest boxes doesn't mention woodpeckers at all.

   I'm not surprized that woodpecker problems are a recurring topic.  The one experience I had in this department was a couple of years ago when I was living in a cottage while building my house.  It was early spring, and I guess all the birds were staking out their territory.  For a few weeks, every morning about five minutes after sunrise, a flicker would land on the chimney cap of the tin stovepipe and start "drumming".  Didn't need an alarm clock that spring, and I swear you could have heard that critter a mile down the lake.

   Doc

2. 
   Ralph027 | Jun 10, 2002 12:49am | #10

   Throw birdseed and woodpecker food (suet?) in you neigbors yard at night.