Backyard Visitors

We have had a couple of regular visitors in our back yard this summer.  One of them is pictured here, and there is evidence of the other one in this same picture.

In the picture you can see our friendly woodpecker.  There have actually been two of them, this one is the male and therefore the more colorful of the two.  He is working on the clothesline pole, which has been dead for years.  Below is the birdhouse, which holds the evidence of our other visitor.  We have had a squirrel visit who decided to enlarge the hole of the birdhouse.  If you look closely at the picture you can see the rough edge all around the hole where the squirrel chewed on it.  The squirrel's activity prompted my dad to prune the neighbor's tree a little so the squirrel couldn't get to the bird house.  There is already a metal sheet around the pole below the birdhouse to prevent access from below.  Dad had to prune it a couple of times, but since then the squirrel has left the birdhouse alone.  We still see the squirrel as he runs along the back fence, but the only visitors near the birdhouse have been the woodpeckers.