Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, HaHaHaHaHaHa

I have lots of desert flora and fauna around my house. We have been visited by snakes sunning on our patios, scorpions hiding in the crevices of our rock, we see a thousand lizards of various color and size running around, through and ON the house. Quail come to water from our tree every morning when the tree well fills up and roadrunners often go streaking from the desert next to us, across the street and into our neighbors' yards, scooting after beetles and crickets. This year we've had a few centipedes, which is kind of scary, so we have to keep our eyes open more. We even had a few javelinas poop in the yard when we moved in over a year ago! And almost every night when we lay down to go to sleep, we hear a pack of coyotes yodeling. We kind of have our own Sonoran Desert Zoo going on next to us.

Yesterday, I heard a new addition to the wandering menagerie of desert dudes who hang out in our vicinity...a woodpecker. I heard him (or her) out on my front porch. I thought, "Oh! How fun! A woodpecker must have found a bug or something to eat on the side of my house!" So I opened the door to peek out and see my new friend. And this is what I saw: (no comments on the poor quality of photos, I need a new camera. Mine is old and crappy...anyone doing a giveaway for a new camera?)

The woodpecker is SO NOT my new friend. He/she is now on the list of things that need to be dealt with.

Can you believe this little pecker did that to my house? He wasn't content to just knock away the stucco, he had to penetrate the chicken wire, roofing paper and styrofoam too! Hey! I live in Arizona! The houses are already built like crap here, I don't need no stinking woodpecker bringing that point home (no pun intended) by building a nest in my wall!

I called my mom, to find out if there is such a thing as woodpecker repellent. She said, "Yeah...a piece of tin." Apparently the little jackhammer will keep coming back to finish the hole unless I cover it with something inpenetrable. I can't put a piece of tin over the hole, my house is stucco and chicken wire! And they are on the endangered species list now, so I can't shoot it! (Please, all you animal rights activist, do not email me with your animal rights crap, the bird is pecking holes in my HOUSE!!!)

So now, every morning, we are on high alert, waiting for the woodpecker to return, then we promptly run out and scare the crap out of it. We keep scaring it the direction of my next-door neighbor's house...our neighbor is also on the list of things to be dealt with.

I always thought the cartoon creators were mean for making Woody Woodpecker appear to be so annoying. Now I know why...