Woodpecker Hates Cars Too

About three years ago, I was standing on top of Treble Cone in New Zealand, planning my line down the powdery face in front of me, when I struck up a conversation with a local who was doing the same. His face lit up when I said that I was from Vancouver and he told me that a lot of Kiwis look at Canada as a big brother of sorts. Suffice to say, he took it upon himself to make one of his "northland brethren" feel welcome. New Zealand is also home to a species of black parroty-looking birds called Keas who love to cause shit. They're especially enamoured with shiny things and they'll steal keys, rip the antennas off of cars, etc. It's sort of appropriate that one of our Canadian birds, a woodpecker to be exact, is following the example of its Kiwi buddies. People take their cars pretty seriously here in Vancouver though, so I wonder how many incidents it would take for a bylaw to hit the books ("We're here! We're queer! We don't want anymore bears!"), or for someone to get arrested for trying to shoot a woodpecker out of a tree.

Photo courtesy of jessicafm.