I'm going MAD! The cause of this sudden loss of sanity, you ask?

...a pesky woodpecker!

Now, most of you will be aware of my love of birds, I encourage them closer to our home using delicious nutty hanging feeders and delight to watch them... but, oh my! Any soft feelings I had towards our feathered friends is quickly evaporating and being replaced by the mantra "die, birdie, die!"

Last Sunday the pecking started and continued throughout last week until Ed noticed a large hole in the wall below our guest room and a pile of sawdust on the ground below it... I phoned the pest control guy "George", who deals with all 'pests' for our housing association... he said he didn't have much experience with woodpeckers, but he'd come and have a look...

George came today and filled up the hole. Job done, I thought... In the fight between man and bird, man had won! BUT this pesky woodpecker was not giving up so easily... oh no! He is remarkably persistent! About half an hour after George had left, the peck, peck, peck, peck (like a little hammer on speed) started again! This hammering has continued throughout the afternoon and, although I can't go outside and look, I am pretty sure there will be a hole in our wall again... in the WAR between man and bird, bird seems to be winning...

Not to be defeated, I searched the Internet for a quick and easy way to get rid of our persistent friend... to my horror, I find that, once a woodpecker has chosen it's desired nesting place, it is a challenging task to get them to change their mind... worse than that, apparently they are a protected species, so if we kill the little sucker, we're likely to face a hefty fine!

This is war... it's ON, little birdie, it is ON! You wanna fight dirty? Well OK then... (I know woodpeckers aren't affected by smack talk, but it's making me feel better!)... this fight might have to get messy, but, in the war between man and bird, man is gonna win this thing, by fair means or foul!