Tag Archives: Green woodpecker

44/366 Signs of Green woodpecker

13 Thursday Feb 2020

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Even if I hadn’t heard the Green woodpecker yaffling as it flew from the paddock ahead of a dog and its walker passing through, I would have known the bird had recently been there. For, as I strolled along the boundary path, every patch of bare earth had punched into it the tell-tale holes of the woodpecker’s probing beak as it had searched beneath the ground for ants and other insects.

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And, always quite close to those scatterings of holes were the bird’s droppings, with their characteristic hook at one end – just like a stick of candy, someone once told me, though undoubtedly the taste would be rather different. If you look closely at my photos, you might just make out the carapaces from the bird’s feasting.

203/365 Juvenile Green woodpeckers

22 Monday Jul 2019

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Two visits in a row I’ve seen this juvenile Green woodpecker and its parent in the same area at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. (You can tell it’s a juvenile by the dark streaking on its face and underparts.)

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it was checking out a Nuthatch further up the tree

It’s a small fenced off area where not too many people venture but that makes it all the more attractive to me. The lack of frequent foot traffic means it’s a good place to observe birds and butterflies, and I guess the adult woodpecker has also realised it’s a safer place for its offspring as the juvenile begins to make its own way in the world.

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the adult Green woodpecker

This is not the only juvenile Green woodpecker in the park at the moment. After seeing these two the other day, I also heard a lot of yaffling in another location and, as I approached, saw four Green woodpeckers fly up from the ground into the neighbouring trees. Whether that was two adults and two juveniles, or one adult and three juveniles, I’ve yet to discover.

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24/365 Yaffling all day long

24 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter

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It was a woodpecker-kind of day at Cosmeston today. No sooner had I arrived and cast my eye (and bins) up towards the chirping-finch-filled trees above my head than I spotted a Great spotted woodpecker. It wasn’t drumming but was studiously pounding away at the tree trunk it was on – preliminary hole excavation work perhaps.

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Then, as I headed on along the path, I heard this Green woodpecker yaffling in the neighbouring field. A reasonably tall hedge separated us so I was able to get quite close for photos and to watch it prospecting for ants and other insects in the damp ground. I wonder if the winter dampness means its prey is further down in the soil – it was certainly probing quite deeply.

 

Encounters with Green woodpeckers

13 Monday Aug 2018

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I’m sure I’ve written before on here that Green woodpeckers can be darn tricky to get good views of. They’re very skittish birds, taking fright and flying off at the slightest noise, yaffling as they go.

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So, I was really thrilled at Lavernock Nature Reserve last Wednesday to get quite close to two of these beautiful birds. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I had seen the same bird in different parts of the reserve, as the sightings were an hour apart, or whether these were two different birds, but a close look at their facial markings has confirmed they are different – a real bonus!

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I think the reason I did manage to get reasonably near both times is that these are juvenile Green woodpeckers (Picus viridis) – you can tell that from the black mottling in their plumage – so they haven’t yet learnt to fear all humans or, perhaps, their senses aren’t yet as acutely honed as their parents’.

These are both male birds – you can tell from the red feathers in the ‘moustache’ markings on either side of their beaks. And both were intent on feeding on ants from the many anthills that dot the wildflower meadows at Lavernock (as you can see in the very short video below). Perhaps that’s another reason why they were not so concerned about me.

Green woodpecker feeding

Fieldfares and Redwings

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, weather, winter

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Nature’s cold weather events may be lovely to look at – and I freely admit that, as a Kiwi unused to snow, I absolutely loved the heavy snow we had last week as a result of ‘The Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma – but such events come at a high cost, particularly to wildlife. The extreme cold and gale-force easterlies blew across from Europe thousands of Fieldfares and Redwings, and displaced a myriad of other birds: Golden plovers and Lapwing, Woodcocks and Snipe were all reported in parklands and farmers’ fields, all desperately looking for food.

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I’d not seen many Fieldfares before this storm hit but a walk around local parks and Cardiff Bay on Sunday and Monday gave me the opportunity to see large numbers of them and Redwings.

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In Penarth Marina Park, I spotted five of Britain’s six thrush species grazing (Song thrush, Mistle thrush, Blackbird, Redwing and Fieldfare) (accompanied by a Green woodpecker), and in trees alongside the River Taff, I got my closest views yet of Fieldfare – such beautiful markings.

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Let’s hope they now have the strength to head back to where they came from and that the cold blast won’t have any long-term effects on their populations.

Through a hedge, quietly

27 Monday Nov 2017

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My usual view of the Green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is a flash of its bright red Mohawk, bright green body and bright yellow rump as it rockets rapidly away from me. They are notoriously nervous birds and, as they usually feed on wide open expanses of grass – all the better to spot the dreaded photographer trying to creep up on them, they easily spot my clumsy attempts at stalking, and fly off at the drop of an ant. So, the few photos I’d managed to get were with my long lens on full zoom, with, invariably, the bird partly obscured by branches, twigs or long grass.

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Until last Friday that is…. I was enjoying a wander at Cosmeston, when, having already unsuccessfully stalked one bird, I spotted another in a different field. This time, this woodpecker was completely occupied with poking in the damp soil for ants, and I was on a footpath behind a hedge. I moved to the grassy verge, took care not to step on anything that might crack or rustle, and kept my head down. If the bird looked up, I froze until it got back to its digging. There weren’t many gaps in the hedge so I still couldn’t get very clear or very close shots but I am still ridiculously pleased to have got these couple.

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