As I drew into the car park at work this morning my attention was grabbed by the incessant calling of young birds. I eventually located the source, high in one of the boundary trees. The unmistakeable home of a great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). I could hear the young, but couldn’t see them.
I was back there at lunchtime and spent a fruitless hour staring up into the tree. The calling was continuous, and by watching the adult I eventually figured out that the young were lurking somewhere slightly higher up the branch. Cue walking round a tree for five minutes. No luck. They are certainly up there, but the higher branches are shrouded with leaf cover and I suspect the current nesting point is on the upper side of the limb. Try as I might I saw absolutely nothing.
As the end of my lunch hour approached I headed back to work, pausing by a small area at the other side of the car park. Some small birds were on a feeder, and then – finally – a woodpecker appeared. It’s the male and was busy tapping away at a tree, presumably in search of insects. Perfect!
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
derwandersmann
4 Jun 2014Very nice work, Words! Your persistence paid off handsomely!
Words
5 Jun 2014dW, thanks! I was very pleased with those shots, and (I’ll post later tonight), I have now also discovered the chicks. 😀
Adele
4 Jun 2014Lovely shots. There’s a pair of woodpeckers with fledglings in the garden here, and it always seems to be the male that’s feeding the young.
Words
5 Jun 2014Adele, interesting that the males do so much of the feeding. I have to say I’ve not seen as much of the female here either. Very nice to have a pair in your garden. 😀
Darko
7 Jun 2014Woodpeckers that we have here are mostly flickers (Northern Flickers, to be precise) but I’ve seen few other kinds, some of them the same, or similar, to the one you’ve photographed. What is interesting about flickers is that in the spring they punch on metal objects with their beak in order to attract females. It is funny to hear “ttrrrrrrrnnn” early in the morning 🙂
Nice shots. We expected to see woodpecker in George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary but no luck this year.
Words
9 Jun 2014Darko, I’ve seen pictures of flickers – very handsome looking birds. I like the idea that they hammer metal! I think you have a wider range of woodpecker species than we do (we have three, Ireland has none). Hope you get to see some soon.