Unwanted Renovation Help

The Big Guy keeps finding more and more places on the house where the original cedar siding needs to be replaced. Some areas are so dried out that they crumble into bits when you just pound on them with a hammer. It seems like it’s just the paint that’s holding the wood together.

And some of the birds have figured this out too.

About 10 days ago a Nuthatch started pecking away at a spot very high up just below roof edge on the west side of the house. It's a great location just about 25 feet away from the bird feeder. No doubt the Nuthatch was also inspired by all the hammering The Big Guy was doing on the east side where we discovered the water damage.

Stubborn little bird. Even getting sprayed several times with water from the garden hose didn’t deter it. Three or four days later, after removing two knothole plugs and lots of paint chips, the Nuthatch gave up. I guess it finally realized after it had excavated the second knothole that it wasn’t going to get much further on the very solid 2-inch thick board it had selected for its nest site.

But the cedar siding is much thinner.

And Northern Flickers have much larger, stronger beaks than Nuthatches.

A couple of days ago we started hearing knocking sounds on the south side of the house near the chimney.

A pair of Flickers have decided that we have the perfect location for their brood. In two days, they removed substantial hunks of wood from two siding boards, created an opening about 10 by 6 inches in size, ripped up the tar paper underneath and started in on the 2 by 4’s that the siding is nailed onto.

They’re driving The Big Guy nuts.

Yesterday afternoon he moved the medium-sized ladder around to where they are making the hole, got two fresh pieces of cedar siding left over from his work on the east side and temporarily nailed them over top of the hole.

This morning at 6:30 am they were at it again. Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. They woke us up. I got up, went downstairs and peeked around the corner of the house. Flicker No. 1 was perched on the edge of the roof watching Flicker No. 2 pound away at a new location next to the boards The Big Guy nailed up yesterday.


The Big Guy is starting to mumble about guns and shooting and other kinds of violence.

And today’s his birthday too. I’ll go buy him some ice cream. That generally calms him down.