Persistent woodpecker boring a hole in the world's largest hockey stick in B.C.

Duncan, B.C., is home to the world's largest hockey stick, and now it is about to become home to a persistent and pesky woodpecker.

Residents have been equally entertained and annoyed by the small bird, who has spent the last few days boring a hole in the side of the giant hockey stick that sits on the outside of the Cowichan Community Centre.

“I guess it goes to show what housing prices are like around here,” Steve Currie, a resident, told CTV News. “He's looking for housing in a 40-year-old piece of sports equipment.”

The woodpecker seems determined to leave his mark on the 61,000 pound hockey stick, which is constructed out of Douglas Fir wooden beams and reinforced with steel.

The first person who noticed the “wood”-be homeowner was Lorraine Francisty, a figure skating coach at the community centre who has been walking under the hockey stick for years.

She told CTV News she came out of the arena one day and saw some wooden mulch lying on the ground.

“Looked up and there it was,” she said.

She notified the maintenance team of the woodpecker. Workers tried filling the first hole, but it didn't last long.

“I noticed the bird pulled all of the plugging out, it was like steel wool,” Francisty said.

“Last Thursday, they put a cover on it and the bird's smarter than the people here so it was making a hole above that.”

The woodpecker isn’t as smart as it could’ve been though, she joked, pointing out that it would’ve been a better idea to start making his hole on the other side of the hockey stick, where no one would’ve seen it.

Bird experts say the northern flicker, a small, protected species of bird from the woodpecker family and native to North America, is likely in search of food or a nesting spot.

Francisty has been a figure skating coach here longer than the stick has been around. It was built in 1985, but she says the stick means a lot to the residents.

She hopes the woodpecker will move on before more damage is done to the stick.

“It's a landmark to our town, it was at Expo 86,” she said. “I saw it when I went to World's Fair and to have it here, it's a place for our town.”

Duncan’s feathered friend is not the only woodpecker wrecking havoc.

Halfway across the country, in a Montreal suburb, a mischievous cousin has pecked so many holes in the town's towering flagpole that the giant maple leaf normally flying high has been taken down.

That part of the park has even been sealed off for safety.

“That flag is massive, it’s kind of depressing to see it without it,” said one resident.

“I hope that woodpecker knows what he has done,” another resident told CTV News. “He is going to repent.”

Real life scenes reminiscent of the classic cartoon — Woody without a doubt having the last laugh.

“We’re encroaching on their territory,” Currie pointed out. “Maybe he’s entitled to it.”