Something's Been Wrecking My Birdhouse

Back in March I wrote a blog post about building and putting up new birdhouses.  We have so many birds around here it made sense to have plenty of birdhouses for them.  Here's the post:

The Birdhouse Community Apartments 

Like any woodworker/artist/bird enthusiast I take pride in my work.  This what the birdhouse looked like after I hung it up back in March.

I was taking a stroll past the birdhouse the other day, and became infuriated.  I looked at my birdhouse, and thought, "What am I looking at?"

So I took a closer look.

Closer....

Okay, now I'm mad.  I'm more than mad.  What you are looking at is the birdhouse's squirrel guard.  Something had destroyed the guard to enlarge the hole.  The reason I put the guard there was because squirrels like to climb into the birdhouses and eat the eggs or young chicks.

Right now, here are the suspects.

First up, a squirrel or squirrels.

I suspect this monstrosity was chipping away at the birdhouse to get to baby chicks.  They are a malevolent bunch.

Suspect #2:  Idiot woodpecker.

Okay, it's technically this is called a pileated woodpecker.  But they like going around putting holes in things.  Although it's really working against it's fellow birds' self interests by enlarging the squirrel guards.  We have dozens of trees around the property.  Why did this redheaded asshole decide to destroy my birdhouse?

So that's my story so far.  If the hole gets worse I may end up replacing the squirrel guard.  If it gets even worse than that, I will just replace the whole birdhouse.  The backyard should be on alert.  I'm keeping an eye on all the birdhouses.  Nature should know I'm not above employing underhanded techniques to protect my birdhouses.