[RWebb]

actually, the pattern looks like the woodpecker was searching for food.

I would call an exterminator RIGHT AWAY

Do NOT shoot at or harm the woodpecker. ALL of them are protected as Migratory Birds. SOME woodpeckers are really really protected as endangered or threatened species. In the latter case, anybody - not just the govt. can sue you.

But the Feds are NOT kidding around with migratory birds. An older frined of mine - a scientist and a mentor in NM, got tangeld up with them. After about $50,000 in legal fees they agreed to not send him to prison for netting the birds he studies without a federal permit. He studies behavior & I don't even think he was killing them (tends to modify their behavior). But he had to gie a big apology at a major scientific symposium and then publish it ina scientifc journal. Big embarassment.

CALL your local Agricultural extension agent. Ask them what to do. Your tax $$ already pay for their job & they are not just for farmers. They will usually know of a local bird pest expert that can convince the bird to leave or trap it alive and take it away.

But ti really does like an insect hunting pattern -- note how the holes tend to floow the grain of the wood - that's b/c bugs tunnel thru the little tubes in the wood (xlylem/phloem).