The Birds and The Bees

After we had the house painted this summer, I posted about how I had fixed up the front porch. It's so nice out there with the fresh coat of paint on the house, trim and shutters...and the new wicker furniture and we've really been enjoying it. But we haven't been alone. No sooner had the paint dried then the carpenter bees were back at work drilling their neat little perfectly round 1/4" holes in the eaves and under the porch rails.

Then a little over a week ago, we heard this tapping sound. Upon investigation, we found there was a stupid little woodpecker pecking at the post on the south end of the porch! I guess he thought it was a tree. We figured he would give up when he found there were no bugs in the porch post. Well...he was determined, if not bright. He kept pecking away at it. This weekend, while he was pecking away, I showed the grand kids the bird at work on the post. By now he had made a hole big enough to stick his head in! Jessica was taking his picture and she noticed that on the porch floor, underneath him, the Geico gecko was standing there watching the chips fall where they may. He looked right at her and seemed to be thinking, "Need homeowner's insurance?" Now you'd think that even a bird brain would realize, when he could stick his whole head inside, that there are NO BUGS in the porch post. But no...our friend had to look so far into the hole that he fell in!!!

So now he's flapping around inside the post. It's too narrow for him to fly, and there's nothing for him to hang on to in order to climb back up. You have to feel sorry for the poor little idiot. So Jerry got his tools out and cut a piece out of the bottom of the post so he could come out that way. But he's still inside. We thought the post was hollow and he could come out the bottom. But there must be something in the middle section. He's been in there for two days now and we don't know what else to try. I suggested Jerry make a little "rescue ladder" from jute or something to drop down inside the hole. He didn't jump right on that idea, but he did agree that he can take a funnel and put some bird feed inside the hole. If there is something that's keeping the bird from going down to the bottom, it may catch the seed. Then maybe we can put a piece of twine down there and see if he'll climb up on that. So while I relax on the porch swing, Jerry is busy with continuing rescue efforts and further demolition of the newly painted post.