Acorn-hunting birds driving residents nuts

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — A Walnut Creek, Calif., retirement community where deer nibble on lawns and wild turkeys strut across the golf course is calling in a hit man to shoot woodpeckers that drill into homes to stash acorns.

Two Rossmoor homeowner associations are bringing in a federal hunter soon after receiving U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permits to kill up to 50 acorn woodpeckers, on condition that nonlethal methods are tried first.

Some residents are upset, but the homeowner groups contend they have installed nets, hawk-squawk boxes, owl decoys and battery-operated spiders, and yet homes are getting drilled by the birds.

"People here don't want to shoot them, but after spending eight years and $170,000 without success, the homeowner groups don't know what else to do," said Maureen O'Rourke, a Rossmoor spokeswoman. "The birds can do a lot of damage."

She spoke on behalf of Rossmoor maintenance managers, who did not return phone messages.

Some residents are unhappy about the plan to whack the woodpeckers, which are black and white with red on the top of their heads.

"We should find a way to live with wildlife without killing them," said Molly Mullikin, a Rossmoor resident.

The shooting is expected to start within a week or two once the hunter, who works as a nuisance-wildlife controller for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is available.

The license to kill — called a depredation permit — was granted in June and is good for one year under federal rules aimed at balancing the needs of wildlife and protecting human crops and property, said Al Donner, a spokesman for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

Acorn woodpeckers — highly communal creatures that will raise other acorn woodpeckers' young — depend heavily on acorns for food.

The permit allows killing by a shotgun, pellet gun or snap trap. If Rossmoor wants another permit next summer, the federal agency will reassess the situation, Donner said.

Duke Robinson, a Rossmoor resident, said he has mixed feelings about the woodpeckers. The birds drilled many holes into the side of his hillside house before moving onto other wood targets about three years ago.

"I don't like the idea of killing the woodpeckers, but I don't know else can be done," he said.

"It's a dilemma with no easy solution."