Frantic Red Bellied Woodpecker

This Mama Red Bellied Woodpecker was raising such a ruckus
the other day that she got my attention.
She kept poking her head in the hole where her nest was
and backing back out and she was just frantic.
I walked over to observe what the problem was and out came
one of her eggs falling to the ground. I looked around and
spied yet another egg on the ground in the grass.
When I looked in the hole a Grackle was in her nest and was
tearing into the nest and eggs.





Well I do not like woodpeckers damaging my trees but the
Mama instinct in me got angry at the Grackle destroying her
eggs so off I went to get the BB gun.I ran back to see another
egg hit the ground.That made up my mind so I started shooting
into the hole at the Grackle and the pest came flying out of there.
After the terror of the nest flew off she settled
right down and went into the hole to inspect her nest.
I do not know how many eggs a woodpecker usually lays but I
am hoping she had more than three and that the Grackle did
not ruin all her eggs.




It is hard to stay mad at the woodpeckers for making holes in the
trees because the trees must be infested with bugs to start with
for the woodpeckers to go after. So maybe the trees would
eventually die or are dying anyway.
Sometimes we Mama's have to look out for one another.