Any tips on getting rid of an annoying wood pecker?

At our last house we had recurring problems with woodpeckers poking holes in our house (wood siding.) When we heard the pecking, we would thwack hard on the wall from inside the house, if that didn't scare the bird away we went outside and hollered at the bird. Over time a few holes were put into the siding, but so what? No real problem. We are bird lovers so wouldn't hurt the woodpeckers. (Not be be Ash Can-y, but why is the Republican answer to any problem to shoot the problem? ;-) ) Last year while visiting my old home I noticed that the newest owners had put on vinyl siding. I asked why, since the wood siding was in great shape and looked very nice (nicer than the vinyl for sure.) The elderly woman said it was because the birds were pecking at the siding and she didn't like it. So if you are old and feeble and obsessed with appearance I guess paying $10,000 for new siding is a solution. She also chastised me for planting so many daffodils, crocus, tulips, etc. since "bulbs are so hard to kill." Why she couldn't just let them bloom I don't know, they had them mowed down every year. Some people hate nature, some try to coexist.

In my township discharge of firearms / weapons of any type is illegal. If I was seen in this neck of the woods with that thing, dressed like that I'd be in deep terrible trouble. The Coast Guard helicopters over head, Boarder Patrol out back in the river in there boats machineguns maned and Home Land Security leading me away in hand cuffs with the County Sheriff directing the traffic in front of my house after the neighbor called 911, "terrorists in the woods"

I could help

or maybe some people just dont share your view of "whats nice"? Possibly the elderly woman put the vinyl on there so she wouldnt have to hire anyone to paint/stain every few years. Possibly the old gal has allergies, where she might be allergic to your flowers? i dont think it means she hates nature, rather has a less eclectic viewpoint than your own.

yeah, the Barrett .50, while not illegal in most states (its legal here even in MA, the land of tough weapons laws), is most likely too heavy to run around hunting with....in MA, you cant use a rifle to hunt, only shotguns, crossbows, bows, and black powder. So, this particular weapon is basically only for enthusiasts here, limited to range-shooting and as a deterrent to burglars and my daughters horny boyfriends....generally tell them Ive got lots of shovels too!

I use to shoot one of thoes in the USMC it was a M82A1 50cal sniper rifle. That will work just fine

As Mo Heat we had a ceder sided house, pretty stuff. Woodpecker loved it as did the carpenter bees.
I wrapped Aluminum foil around the posts the pecker was pecking, and ran outside screaming and clapping whenever I heard it. Seemed to work well. Then we sold the house, problem solved.

After hearing they're endangered (I was joking about shooting) it's most likely a downy. He kept poking at the same spot, this weekend I covered the spot with some foam board insulation. No one can see it anyway, I'll tell you how it goes. That will hinder it's ability to hear insects (I couldn't see any), and if using my eave as a sounding board, he'll be in for a shock trying to pick at the foam. The one picking at my house is the male, it's got the red on the head while the female swoons in the tree (no red). It's cute the family hangs out together.

For the record, not that I really care what people think of me, I'm not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat, but if shooting things were viewed less evil, I might move that up on my priority list of solutions for a lot of things and likely be the better for it. As it is, I am registered well to the left of middle, but see good and bad positions on each side of the isle. Mostly bad or disingenuous. And I put shooting things as my solution of last resort. My woods are filled with daffodils and naked ladies (that's flowers to you BB so don't go getting too excited , I have three big flower gardens that take more time than they are worth (thank you Mrs. Mo Heat), I grow a few vegetables every year, and I do my best to live in harmony with natural law. I love flowers, puppies and guns. Hopefully that will remove me from most little boxes so many seem to think within.

Few are as tender hearted as Mrs. and Mother Mo Heat, but even they gave their blessing before I cracked open the gun safe and got medieval on a couple Downies and Tufted Titmice. These birds were dug in and going nowhere after 3 years of fruitless renaissance removal techniques. Sorry, don't feel like raising nets for that Halloween home appearance. Man is a predator after all.

Even the Dali Lama kills pests. During an interview he was being bitten by a mosquito. The first time he shooed it away. It returned and bit him again. Again he shooed it away. The interviewer was impressed by his compassion and probably said so. Then it returned a third time and bit him again. He smashed it dead without compunction, likely to the surprise of his interviewer, saying that he had given the mosquito two chances and he only had two cheeks to turn, or something like that. I'm telling this story second hand so some of the details are probably inaccurate, but the killing of the mosquito is a certainty.

Below is a quote from a Dali Lama lecture at UT. To be fair I've included both yin and yang statements. Life is after all a complex interaction of opposites (duality). Rising above judgement leaves only action without the mistake of the mind so he tempers his statement with a second qualifier statement that warns of blindly applying concepts wholesale to all situations. In other words, there is always an "on the other hand" when it comes to thinking. In doing so he, as most gifted spiritual masters do, equates the good and the bad and leaves your thoughts conflicted and somewhere in the middle. The lesson being that thinking is thinking while action is action. They are associated in people, but are discreet entities as well (does the tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one hears it? what is the sound of one hand clapping. He of course understands well the concept of karma and the interplay of the three Gunas (Satva, Tamas, and Rajas) of Vedic tradition from which Buddhism is anchored whether acknowledged or not. Here is the quote:

Sometimes anger protects you (ex: a mosquito - anger will kill it and protect you from further suffering, whereas patience may give you malaria). But decisions in the heat of the moment are not your normal mind. It is blind energy, self-destruction.

The lesson? Kill, but do it with premeditation and intent, not blind emotional reaction. Hmmm... It's weird how philosophy and law seems at odds sometimes, isn't it?

We had a woodpecker kill itself on our sliding glass door, maybe you could get your windows really clean and put lots of flowering plants in the house so that birds would fly into it and knock themselves silly? We didn't mean to do that, but it has happened a couple times. I recently bought some window paint to draw little designs on the windows to try to prevent this from happening in the future, but if you really WANTED to hurt the little birdies . . .

Re: my house that had woodpeckers pecking at the lovely wood siding, and the current owners who put up vinyl siding and mowed all the flowers to the ground.

HarryBack said: or maybe some people just dont share your view of “whats nice”? Possibly the elderly woman put the vinyl on there so she wouldnt have to hire anyone to paint/stain every few years. Possibly the old gal has allergies, where she might be allergic to your flowers? i dont think it means she hates nature, rather has a less eclectic viewpoint than your own.

Actually she does seem to hate nature. I talked to her for an hour or more on two different occasions, there was no mention of any allergies, and I heard all about her other infirmities (heart, legs, back, etc.) She stays in the house mostly, and said she can't hardly walk to the back of the property (200 feet.) She demonstrated disgust and dismay that her husband was starting a garden and trying to grow tomatoes and pumpkins. She complained to her son about 'blue things blooming in the grass, couldn't he get rid of them?" The 3 sets of neighbors across, behind, and next to the house have mentioned how awful it is that they were killing all the flowers and trees, I assure you that they were quite lovely. One told me that she had cried when they were cutting 'my' trees down, another sent me photos and a message of shock and dismay. I had some prairie parts and raspberry bushes in the back that I expected to be hacked down, but I didn't expect anyone to mow down the perennial flower beds in front of the house. And then when the bulbs kept coming up anyway, to put sod over them. Plus cut down some perfectly healthy trees (NOT for firewood.) That is plain nature hatred. As for the siding, we lived there 12 years and there was absolutely no staining or painting or anything that needed to be done in all that time, it looked great when we moved in and great when we moved out. Attractive and no maintenance! I think paying someone once in 10 years or so to stain it would be a lot cheaper than all new siding?!? I try not to think about my old yard, my new one is much bigger and I never get done everything I need to.

This sounds significantly less effective than shooting them, but I appreciate the suggestion.