Comments on: Acorn Woodpeckers: Rossmoor gets rid of them … one way or another

By: Get Real

Get Real — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:53:37 +0000

They should put a reward or bounty on the Acorn Woodpeckers. We should use them for target practice any time we can. All they do is destroy homes and other structures. They are noisy and annoying.

You bird lovers are a bunch of ____%%%%%%.

Start protecting something that really matters.

By: bruce Thom

bruce Thom — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:25:30 +0000

Interesting how the Mutual response to shooting wood peckers morphed into making carpenter bee houses to solve their problem. These houses wwere built by a local builder but they are carpenter bee houses.

How about making the builders responsible for using foam siding instead of wood?

The carpenter bees are wonderful pollinators working on cold days to pollinate my fruit trees when it is too cold for the other bees. One cool spring, they were the bees working my apple trees. I had a great crop that year.
Their houses are a 1/2 inch hole drilled an inch or two into old untreated wood. The hole then turns at a 90 degree angle. That sounds difficult to build. I wonder if just drilling the straight inch or two hole would encourage them to finish the 90 degree turn. That last part is their brood chamber.

Wood Peckers on the other hand…

These birds fly to catch insects in the air or on the ground, forage on trees or gather and store nuts. They are omnivorous, eating insects, seeds, fruits, berries, nuts, and occasionally even the eggs of other birds.[3] About two thirds of their diet is made up of plants.[3] They nest in a cavity in a dead tree, utility pole, or a dead part of a tree that is between 8 and 80 feet (2.5 to 25 m) above the ground.

Again we in Rossmoor are the laughing stock of the area..

A little research would keep egg off the faces of the mutual who foisted this solution on their constituents…

Bruce Thom
Ptarmigan Dr
Walnut Creek CA 94595
“a mind is like a parachute.
it only works when open….”

By: Gary Bogue

Gary Bogue — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:25:03 +0000

B.J.: This is out of Rossmoor’s hands and into the Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s area. With a bureaucracy, it’s best to publicize the wrongs that they are doing. They react better to public knowledge than anything else I know, so a letter to the editor of your local newspaper is most effective. Thanks for caring. /Gary

By: Mr. Muir

Mr. Muir — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:18:07 +0000

It appears you have a sympathetic ear at http://eastbaydaze.blogspot.com. Guy there says they might be able to disperse birds with light… and not kill them

By: B.J.

B.J. — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:40:53 +0000

Gary, This is unbelievable! Who can we write to complain about this?

By: Rossmoor Woodpeckers Taken from Nesting Area « Bay Area Wildlife Blog

Rossmoor Woodpeckers Taken from Nesting Area « Bay Area Wildlife Blog — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:24:47 +0000

[...] Rossmoor Woodpeckers Taken from Nesting Area 2009 June 3 tags: Birds, Rossmoor Woodpeckers, Wildlife by clapperail The latest word on the sneaky, below the belt tactic taken by Rossmoor is so outrageous and unethical it can only have expedited been by a equally unethical USDA. Gary Bogue brought up a good point in his blog today: [...]

By: diana granados

diana granados — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:03:46 +0000

Gary
Glad you had the same conclusion and you state it the best! Dr. Walters was appalled that this would occur during peak breeding season, but you know if some of the relatives of these young managed to elude the assassins (oops,researchers) they will survive and since the Acorn woodpeckers respond to loss by having the non-breeders be allowed to breed maybe it will be a repeat when Rossmoor killed 15 in 2007 and had to renew their permit to kill 50. Where is their learning curve? The USDA did their own count and found 27 Acorn woodpeckers in 110 acres and have now devastated an entire population in killing 7 and removing 20. This area backs up to open space did they harm a population that was not “legally” on their property? The more I think about this the more I realize that until we give equal value to the lives of animals we will spiral into a greater loss of our own humanity. The person responsibility was the building materials were inappropriate, a setup for failure, failure that was not the Acorn woodpeckers responsibility. thanks Gary and Denis. take care Diana

By: Annie B

Annie B — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:31:47 +0000

My first thought on reading this article was the analogy one might make to Japan’s whale “research” program.

Shouldn’t the USDA be spending their time (and our money) on food safety issues? Given that we have to cut government programs I think I found one that gets my vote off the island.