That's the Woody Woodpecker Song

I don't imagine there are many Baby Boomers who didn't, at some point in their childhoods, use the Woody Woodpecker laugh. The online version of that laugh - which was the vamp to The Woody Woodpecker song - says that the laugh sounded like: Ho-ho-ho ho ho, ho-ho-ho ho ho.

But Woody's "ho" was not a hardy Santa Clausian "ho." It was more of a dirty laugh "ho", more like a "ha-ha-ha heh heh ha-ha-ha heh heh" kinda "ho." (Judge for yourself: Woody Woodpecker laugh.)

Imitating the Woody Woodpecker laugh served a dual purpose: it was just plain fun; and, as if just plain fun weren't enough, it was something that adults found ultra annoying. And Woody himself was a pretty annoying, abrasive character to begin with, so extra points for that.

Everyone loved Woody Woodpecker, and my sibs and I had a special fondness for him because there were woodpeckers in the woods next to our house, with plenty of wood to peck on. 

It's been a while since I gave woodpeckers in general, or Woody Woodpecker in particular, much thought. But then I saw a wonderful article in The Boston Globe that reported on a pileated woodpecker - the kind of woodpecker that Woody is - that's up to no good in the town of Rockport. 

Day after day, a pileated woodpecker has been smashing the side view mirrors on cars throughout the [Squam Hill] neighborhood. A rough count is about 20 mirrors, based on interviews with neighbors, but it’s hard to keep up because it’s still happening.

In one instance, the woodpecker cracked the windshield of a pickup truck while the driver was sitting inside. (Source: Boston Globe)

Residents are pushing their side mirrors in. They're swaddlng those mirrors in plastic bags and towels. This is no sweet little birdie they're dealing with. And there may be more than one of the avian miscreants out there. 

“This thing is huge, and it doesn’t sound like a normal bird, it sounds like a monkey in a tree,” said Devin Mock, who said he came out of his Squam Road house recently to find four of them on the windshield of his brother’s truck. “I’ve seen little woodpeckers before, but these suckers are gigantic.”

They may not exactly be gigantic, but pileated woodpeckers can run up to 19" long. (Tall?) Other types of woodpeckers, which are more common in Massachusetts than our feathered pileated friends, tend to be a lot smaller. (The pileated ones are roughly the size of crows while the other guys are closer in size to robins.)

Anyway, here's what/why is happening up in the quiet seaside town of Rockport, which is perhaps best known for being the location of Motif Number 1, a fishing shack that's been called the most often-painted building in America. As in painted by art students and amateur painters, not as in the walls are painted to keep the shack standing. 

...it is well-known that songbirds will mistake a reflection for a rival and attack, especially during spring mating season. And this is a bird-friendly neighborhood, with feeders everywhere and abutting the massive Dogtown Commons, a five-square-mile wooded conservation area that covers much of Rockport and Gloucester.

“It’s likely a single male bird, establishing territory, perhaps for the first time, and when they see a reflection in the mirror, they view it as a competitive male,” said John Herbert, the director of bird conservation at Mass Audubon. “And this is the time of the year when their hormones and testosterone are at peak levels for aggression.”

Turns out, most birds peck at windows. It's that the pileated woodpecker is big and macho enough to break glass. (Wild turkeys have been known to do the same in many Boston and suburban neighborhoods.) Unfortunately, there are still a few more weeks left to mating season. The upside, say the neighbors, is that they're all talking to each other about it.

Me? I'm just wondering whether the pileated woodpecker has a Woody Woodpecker laugh.

Ha-ha-ha heh heh, ha-ha-ha heh heh.