Well from previous blogs you know the 'stages' of prevention that have been taken on WOODY as we attempt to 'draw back' his mental behavior.... yes, perhaps normal as it is part of mating behavior according to Penn State Extension but none-the-less...a bit disturbing living in the house with thumping going on all day. Our mystery thump for visitors entering our house.

So after somewhat successfully preventing WOODY from attacking one of our windows by stages 1 and 2 measures, the end result was just chasing him to another window in our house, as evident by this new video. It is 'called' as it is....so voice-over being what it is in the state of the moment. 

We left to go birding yesterday for the day so not sure the extent of this 'attack'....an all day one or just in the morning wee hours. This morning  Sunday we awoke to the bird doing a bit of both....finding a corner in the one window where the packing paper is not covering the entire window to attack, and then when chased away by us, it immediately started on the back window. 

Luckily,....we are going again today. So WOODY, have your fill of glass. 

​Tomorrow I will get some suet to attract a female bird.... 

Saturday...Saturday....the state of our window from the outside, as Woody persists in its male dominated attack upon our glass. A continued Saga from previous blog. To start....don't be confused about the bird your eye immediately is drawn to in this image. For that bird, the big one in the middle of window and dangling by a string is not the bird I am talking about. That bird is fake. Fake news.... That also happens to be stage 2 or preventative measures

Stage 1 is the packing material. Yesterday Deb had a marvelous idea as only Billy Crystal might be able to point out, that covering the window with packing material (stage 1) would be enough to persuade WOODY to move on. But stage 1 was a nice attempt, but futile in the end.

Thus stage 2....the giant hummingbird feeder dangling from a nail would compliment stage 1. Together they would work in close unison, or so went the plan.

It was real windy yesterday here and the fake bird was in constant disarray as it swayed back and forth across the window. In fact....something to note, the fake bird supplanted the real bird in the noise it made as the fake bird was banging against the window making the exact same noise we were trying to prevent with the real bird. So our efforts paid off yesterday only with identical noise. 

Last night, as we watched the Phillies whallop the Padres (did you get a chance to see the uniforms of the Padres? Oh my....yes, oh my. See below, as you can't miss it. 

Deb got quite tired of the thumping created by the fake bird so she decided to remove the fake bird from the arsenal of real bird protective measures, thus we were back to just stage 1 (see above in blog for a rehash of stages). All was fine....all worked but of course it was night and not much of a reflection in the window. 

This morning....Saturday, as the day was addressed earlier in the blog.....WOODY returned as only stage 1 protective devices were in place. It is beginning to shape up that with No Fake Bird = Real Bird. So up again went the fake hummingbird to thwart off the attacks. We just had breakfast and so far, no real bird. I am sure this is to be continued..... 

A long time ago....as I seem to recall.....there was a senator from the state of Washington (as opposed to Washington State, where the S is in capitals; per formal APA writing)....  well anyways, his name was Scoop. Scoop Jackson. I am not sure of his real first name, nor do I really give it much thought, even as I write this blog. I suppose, yes I do....that I could look it up or no..strike that: google it...as really, who looks up anything anymore? We just google it. But his name was Scoop or so he was called.

Scoop Jackson...for what it is worth.

Now...the other day I was driving to Ikea in Philadelphia and more specifically down Christopher Columbus BLVD or N Delaware Avenue. You see, yes you would if you had Mapquest on, that they are essentially the same road. It is just that one Christopher Columbus BLVD runs to IKEA and the road coming back (on the same road mind you but going the other way) is called N. Delaware Avenue. City planners...oh yes, you have to appreciate the job they do. 

Well, I was either North or West of Ben Franklin Bridge going to Ikea, so I must have been on Christopher Columbus BLVD. But whether North or West, or for that matter even East, is somewhat impossible to tell at times when traveling in Philadelphia as everything is at an 'angle'. Come to think of it, so is South Jersey, or is that just south Jersey (minus the capital S on south). Have you noticed that? 

So, as I was traveling North, West, maybe East but surely not South of the Ben Franklin Bridge.....I came up to a stop light. Now as my lot in life has chosen itself to be.....I most always 'stop' at stoplights' as the red light just always appears. How rarely am I chosen to have a green light to freely pass to heaven's gate on the other side of the intersection. So I stopped, as I do. Stopped....

I wait...Sometimes I see a car go by but in very many cases as I wait, I just wait for the sake of waiting. It is almost like there is a little person (could be a woman as well as a man) that must have a button that they press when my car approaches. There they lie, someplace...off in the distance having a chuckle at my  expense as I patiently just wait, for the sake of waiting.

This time as I waited....I saw really nothing. My mind in a daze. Most likely I was trying to think how I could navigate IKEA without having to go in at the ground level and work my way "up' and spend a few hours around winding bends in the road....only to then go down and spend a few hours attempting to find my way out of the store. I think about things such as that.

As I waited....and my mind just wandered.....to IKEA and back and whatever...  I saw out of the corner of my eye this huge bird swoop down in front of me and 'scoop' up a mouse that was on the road. Not road kill mouse-like, but most likely a live mouse on the run. This bird, a hawk....maybe a falcon...but I couldn't tell even though it was down on the road on the drivers side of my car. Hey listen, I wasn't expecting this...I wasn't looking for it...it just occurred. This bird swooped and scooped. And then off it went. Just like that. No warning to begin with and certainly no 'adios'. Quick...like lightening this event occurred. No one was around me to back me up and chime in and give me a 'wow' in blank fashion or pen words with their mouth I couldn't hear as both of us would have experienced the same 'wow' moment. Just a Scoop....a take...a fly out...and be done. What was that? A peregrine falcon? A Coopers? A Sharp-shinned? I didn't know...nor did I care....

But a quick scoop...     (no Image to compliment this blog....How could I? I suppose I can make one up and pretend that 'that image' is what I saw but I can't do that to myself. You, you my friends would never be the wiser in this day in age of fake news or images or whatever. But me? No...I can't fake myself out. Not worth it. Thus, no image of that....but perhaps one of 'Scoop'

;
Just this morning no less.... yes, this morning.....Deb and I were awaken in bed at pre-dawn. Dark; yet  a hint of light. The first Cardinal of the day started to spout off, followed by the doves. Oh the endless doves. I suppose they are peaceful, they do have that going for them. Otherwise, simply 'breakfast' for the Coopers. 

But that is not the topic of this blog...About an hour after that first cardinal started their thing, we heard this noise. Hard to explain but the accompanying You Tube connection (https://youtube.com/shorts/3bEC5yfoeWk?si=ySD8hoJFXTkBm9-M)  will fill you in. I got up and started poking around thinking it is something on the roof, the chimney.....who knows. While not prancing, as I simply don't prance....I did walk faster than normal, as my ears honed in on the noise. To the front....the front...the front of the house I went. And there it was. This woodpecker attacking the window. Not an accidental fly-by with a surprise 'whang' at the end, but an out-and-out attack that has persisted the entire day. This behavior has been going on close for hours now. Same bird, same window....same behavior, same thump. In fact here I am writing this blog and the 'windo attack' persists. The bird has left marks on the window as you might be able to tell from the image. 

​It never stops.....it is a perfectly healthy looking bird with no gross manifestations of nodes or infections or oozing growths etc.... Just a bird. In fact it is most likely the same woodpecker I see most every day as it attempts to balance itself on the hummingbird feeder and steal a drop or two.

So I pondered.....as I do. I like to ponder. If pondering could be a job; I would excel at it. I ponder all the time.....so pondering about a bird doing some sort of behavior is not unusual.  Within my pondering routine I thought of lots of things like perhaps a dinged bird brain by previously and unknowingly flying into our window or that of another house. Or, I thought as this behavior started in the morning hours that maybe insects were warming themselves on the glass from the inner heat and the woody was grabbing a quick and easy bite. But hey, it has been hours past this time and I don't see any insects here; then or now. Was the woodpecker in some mating ritual as after all, it is a male...and maybe some kinky female is enjoying the show. But I am going to nix that theory too for no. reason other than, just because. Is the bird seeing it's reflection? Maybe....but there wasn't any light on when the bird started this behavior hours ago and I don't know why all of a sudden this reflection has become such a big issue.  Come on man oh yellow, get over it....mellow out.

But wait....I googled this behavior by typing in 'odd birding behavior and bird smacking into window on a continuous basis' and I take note. I sit up....  Penn State Extension might have an answer. Not from just one of my theories but a combination of them. According to Penn State....(And I will just quote their web site)...

"This is a problem that is most common in spring as male birds are establishing and defending territories. The male sees his reflection in the window and thinks it is a rival trying to usurp his territory. He flies at the window to try and make the rival leave."

And apparently it won't help to just close the window shades as the woodpecker in question would just find another window. The only known cure is to get an actual female and to pair them up. Once paired, his mind is on other things, after all....he is a male. Of course, who is to say the same thoughts are not within the female? 

So there you go....not some alien bird or a bird in special need at the moment, unless that need is female related, and yes, it is spring....and yes it is a window and most likely a reflection. Answer to the 'why' now  is logged in and noted. And...I pulled the blinds down. Problem solved it would appear. I will try to open them later on as perhaps the bird just needed a reboot. 

Second day...morning and going on 10am. Been a few hours and even with the shade pulled down to cut back on reflection, the bird continues to 'thump the window'. Admittedly a reflection still shows from the outside, with the shade down but hey, I tried. It is not up to the bird to figure this thing out. I can provide some assistance such as attempting to block this behavior by pulling the shade down, or by sitting outside to inhibit his window thrashing....But I am not going to sit out there all day, just to sit. Unless of course I have a glass of wine. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/3bEC5yfoeWk?si=ySD8hoJFXTkBm9-M
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