Woodpeckers

[Palustris]

We get lots of these in the garden, but I have never seen this happening before.

And then today the parents were teaching baby how to feed from the nutholders.

[nick the grief]

Lucky sod !! I live close to woodland and all I get are sparrows - no wonder they ar rare everwhere else

Great foto

[Alice]

Great pics Palustris. Thanks for letting us see them.
I don't have woodpeckers as usual residents in the garden, but last year 3 turned up (maw, paw and the wean). They fed on the bird feeder for about 3 days, then were gone. I don't know enough about their habits to know why they should have done that. However when I read they had similar habits to magpies as far as raiding other birds nests are concerned, I was glad they had moved on.

Nick, I have all kinds of birds here - but no sparrows. Isn't the world strange.

[Hazel at the Hill]

It certainly is, Alice - in my courtyard I have regular visits from pigeons and blackbirds who are not in favour as they have nicked all my cherries Also robins who tell my cats off (ok, break it up you guys!) and great tits (who eat the aphids!), and there is a very shy Mrs Wren who sometimes comes to call.

I'm thrilled whenever I see even these 'common' birds - would be thrilled to see woodpeckers!

[shirlthegirl43]

Wonderful pics Paul - thanks for sharing them

[bubblewrap]

Nice pics hear woodpeckers in our local woonds but never seen one.

[smallblueplanet]

We get lots of great spotted woodies on our peanuts, but also we get the occassional green woodpecker after ants on our 'lawn'.

[pigletwillie]

The green woodies are great aren't they SBP, as they walk about feeding. We have a resident one on our allotment site.

[Flummery]

We've had these on the power pole at the end of our garden (it takes power to the next door older property and skips the end of ours) and last week we had a similar sight - adult feeding youngster. It was a bit further away - binocular job, as they were on the far side of the paddock at the end of our garden. It must be kicking out time for the young woodpeckers.

[jacob marley]

fantastic pictures that is from someone who see's them on and of all day long we did have 2 greater spotted woodpeckers yesterday at the same time cracking pictures jacob

[JennieAtkinson]

Great photos Paulustris.

About 12 years ago we had a woodpecker in our garden at our old house in Lerwick. Stayed for about four days and we thoroughly enjoyed his presence. He obviously moved on to another garden, who reported it to the local press and it was then on the list of "must haves" for the British Twitchers Society! Glad we kept quiet about it - I wouldn't have wanted plane loads of twitchers in our garden.

Never heard of one again in Shetland. Apparently it was a Swedish one which had got blown off course - no idea where it was going though!

[dexterdoglancashire]

How fantastic! Ive only had a woodpecker on my nuts once, (no pun intended!) last summer. What wonderful photos! Bernie

[nick the grief]

How fantastic! Ive only had a woodpecker on my nuts once, ....

I bet you say that to all the boys

[wellie]

With living right on the edge of 'their' woodland, the birds that 'pop in' for a snack or two, tend to regard our garden as part of their territory? My cat is these days rarely interested, so thankfully, the birds are masters of their own herbaceous borders, and most of them are foraging for grubs high and low, in additition to the food I put out for them.
Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and Mr. & Mrs. Nuthatch are there constantly right now....a lovely sight with their offspring....

[HeyWayne]

The chap that has the plot next to mine is a twitcher. He has been pointing out all the birds to me by sound. He says there are all sorts around. 2 owls (I can't remember if he said tawny or barn I'm afraid), that live in the oak trees about 200 yards from the allotment. There are greater spotted and green woodpeckers in the bank by the railway line, common buzzards at the other end of the village, pheasants, wrens, tits, all manner of finches, sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, crows and of course wood pigeons.

Isn't it amazing when you start looking....