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"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Ah, the magic music of Merlins (pun incidental). Thanks for that, Jack.
 
Some photos from my trip last week to visit my brother and his wife in Boulder, Colorado. A lot of mountain hiking to get these photos and the next to last one is me doing my first bout of rock climbing. Knives in my pockets throughout were my GEC 77 micarta Barlow and ancient TC Barlow.





 
Fantastic pics Dean, hope you enjoyed the rock-climbing :thumbup:
 
RDaneel said:
Some photos from my trip last week to visit my brother and his wife in Boulder, Colorado. A lot of mountain hiking to get these photos and the next to last one is me doing my first bout of rock climbing. Knives in my pockets throughout were my GEC 77 micarta Barlow and ancient TC Barlow.





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Nice pictures! Thank you.

Cate
 
I'm a nature fan, like animals, plants, the outdoors.

Birds too, put out a lot of feed for them in winter. Except....

Horrible Woodpeckers, :mad: two species, have started punching large holes in the upper part of the country-place (it's a wooden house) this is really alarming as I'm not there all that much, the place will be like Swiss cheese at this rate :eek::eek: Looks like I'll have to put the Cat up on the roof she hunts anything that moves:D

Any other practical suggestions?

Thanks, Will
 
We were having a similar problem. We found some very reflective mylar tape, maybe two inches wide in a large roll. We took lengths of that, maybe three feet long and tacked them to the house in the areas they were bothering. The movement and reflections did wonders in keeping the woodpeckers away. I think it was sold specifically for this use. Good luck!

Do a search for Bird Scare Flash Tape.
 
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Will Power said:
I'm a nature fan, like animals, plants, the outdoors.

Birds too, put out a lot of feed for them in winter. Except....

Horrible Woodpeckers, :mad: two species, have started punching large holes in the upper part of the country-place (it's a wooden house) this is really alarming as I'm not there all that much, the place will be like Swiss cheese at this rate :eek::eek: Looks like I'll have to put the Cat up on the roof she hunts anything that moves:D

Any other practical suggestions?

Thanks, Will
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You need a sh*tgun to solve the problem ... with the woodpeckers. The holes would be bigger with that treatment, but that´s another story :p :o
Just kidding, my friend!

BUT you could go to a hunting store and ask for a some records to put into your CD-Player that might contain the sound of a natural enemy of the woodpecker. Maybe an eagle or big hawk or a big owl or some kind of cat or whatever. :confused:
 
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Will, woodpeckers hit the wood in order to have insects going out and eat them. If they stay it may mean that there is some vermin inside.
We had the same kind of problem at my parent's house in Savoy. Some used engine oil killed the vermin (a good way to recycle) and the peckers went elsewhere to find another restaurant.
 
Thanks for the ideas.:thumbup:

The house was painted (houses here use paints mostly not varnishes or stains) not long ago so I think I can rule out insect infestation. I don't know if putting up liquid repellant will help, that engine oil idea might blacken the nice red paint :D

Will try reflective tapes, but I think it's power struggle between Woodpecker species! There are Lesser Spotted ones and recently the much rarer and LARGER :eek: Grey Woodpecker has turned up sparking rivalry. It's not drumming holes but more like an attempt to bore roosting spots for winter :mad: These are large holes. Using a loud whistle scares them off, plus unaimed air-gun shots (I think they're protected birds and I don't want to kill them anyway)

One solution suggested building large roosting boxes and putting them up. Might do it, but it could attract yet more of the **********:D:D
 
Will, I see your dilemma. The only thing I could recommend is asking a hunter if he knows what to do. I think there is a peaceful way to get rid of these birds. But I have no doubt that this is rather a disturbing situation now. Big holes in houses are no good in any house.
 
Are you patching the holes as soon as you see them? You obviously don't want to let the peckers get established, and they might even move on to somewhere where their efforts aren't in vain.
You can get noisemakers that are motion-activated, and you can get recordings of a woodpecker's distress call followed by a predator's shout of exultation.
(I'm such an expert because I've just been to Cornell Ornithology Lab's website. Everything they recommend is manufactured by Bird-X, which may be significant.)
 
I've seen people put plastic owls on the eaves of their house to keep away nuisance birds (and squirrels) Also the silhouette of a hawk in flight might look good painted on.
 
My experience with wood peckers is, they would not be there, if there was not bugs for them to eat. Maybe you need to either spray for insects or call an exterminator to check and spray for what has infested your woodwork.
 
r8shell said:
I've seen people put plastic owls on the eaves of their house to keep away nuisance birds
Click to expand...

They're used a lot on buildings here, and are supposed to be very effective. Some have heads/wings which move.
 
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