I couldn’t agree more with Portland reader Carole G. Jean’s letter concerning Charles Thompson’s woodpecker essay (“Writer more annoying than woodpecker,” May 18).

I’d not add a word to her sentiment save the following:

1. It was my intent as I read Mr. Thompson’s initially enjoyable piece to forward it to a fellow bird lover in New York state. Then I reached the last paragraph and changed my mind.

No way would I share the writer’s base – as in “mean” or “contemptible” – solution of chopping down the offending tree. He knew the woodpeckers had lived there for years, so it followed that they or other birds would return to enjoy the habitat, considering it theirs – which it was.

2. In the same edition of the Maine Sunday Telegram as the one in which Ms. Jean’s letter appeared was a relevant cartoon strip, “The Other Coast.”

The first and second panels depicted happy yellow birds flying “back to our old nest,” reminiscing, planning, etc., as any satisfied homeowners would. Then the third panel showed the same birds, now decidedly unhappy, sitting on a sizable stump, all that remained of their home, asking the world’s thoughtless humans: “How would you like it if we took a chain saw to your house?!” Indeed.

Martha Yerxa

South Portland