Grandaddy used to bust out in a big grin when I killed a yellowhammer. They are kin to woodpeckers in that they will peck holes in trim boards on the house, etc. He hated them. They probably are protected now .................maybe even owls, too.
SRH
They are a scourge to log homes especially chinked logs. They also travel in small flocks sometimes with Blue Jays.
I'm with grandad.
When I was building my house, I had a small woodpecker start working on a piece of cedar trim. I tried to get him for over a week, but as soon as I would poke my head around the corner to take a bead on him, he'd fly straight away like a bat out of hell, always hugging the siding so I couldn't shoot. Then one day he made the mistake of getting far enough away from the siding that I fired and sent him straight to woodpecker hell.
I was happy that I finally got my nemesis before he did more damage. Then I started seeing carpenter ants in the unfinished kitchen. I watched a few of them crawling up the stud and window trimmer, and disappear into a header right where the woodpecker had been boring into my cedar window trim. I then realized that he was only after the carpenter ants that were taking up residence inside that header. Some boric acid took care of the ants that might have done real damage if they got established. I felt bad that I killed the bird because he was only telling me about a problem that I didn't know I had. They don't peck holes in siding, trim, or log houses just for the hell of it
