Pesky Woodpeckers

This has been one of the warmest Januaries on record in this part of the UK. Although we have had a few hard frosts, it has generally been remarkably warm. Great news from the point of view of heating bills.

Earlier in the month we had a lot of high winds, so bad that a tree was brought down in the garden.

On closer inspection, the tree was full of holes obviously made by woodpeckers. I don't know whether the tree was rotten inside when the woodpeckers decided to nest there, or whether the woodpecker holes caused the tree to rot?

A fallen tree is always a useful source of fuel for our wood burning stove and it was not a very pretty tree, anyway. Luckily it did not fall on anything.

Just outside our kitchen window we have a two storey luxury bird box. The great tits had been showing great interest in it until an incident last week. I had been out all day and when I arrived home was shocked to see that a woodpecker had completely wrecked the box! It had obviously been busy all day enlarging the holes. They are now so big that you could fit a tennis ball through the holes. Completely ruined for nesting great tits :(

I cannot understand why the woodpecker would do this. At this time of year there was obviously nothing nesting yet (I don't think so, anyway). I am wondering if the woodpeckers themselves are planning to move into the box. That would be interesting.


The sparrowhawk is still making life difficult for the little birds around the feeders. As I have mentioned before, it is a little stupid sitting on the garden chair waiting for the little birds to appear. The little ones have more sense than that.

It appears to be getting more desparate, however, and we have seen it on several occasions try to chase the little ones into the bushes. Of course, it's size does not allow it to get in among the branches, so it usually leaves empty-beaked.

Today, I managed to grab a photo. It is not a good one because it was late afternoon and the light was fading. But, at least you can see it is a male with a grey back and reddish stripes on the chest.

It is February tomorrow and the forecast is cold with possible snow on the way. We have not had any snow yet this year. It has been a strange winter. There are daffodils, snowdrops and primroses flowering and some of the bluebells are even several inches high.

I Hate Woodpeckers :(

I am a little late posting this because it happened a couple of weeks ago - just no time to post.

I realise that nature can be cruel but sometimes I find it hard to take. I posted a few weeks ago about the blue tits nesting in the box in our pergola. The box is just outside my office window and I heard tapping. It was a Great Spotted Woodpecker hammering away trying to get into the box. It was after the babies.

I kept chasing it away but it kept returning time and time again. Finally, it found a crack in the bottom of the box and started pulling out moss, part of the nest. I took a photo of it when it reached one of the babies - blood all over its beak :(

I realised that I had to do more to save them, but I did not want to interfere with the box too much otherwise the parents might abandon them. So, I stuck a piece of plastic over the crack and secured it with masking tape. I could feel movements in the box so some of the babies were still alive.

The GSW still kept coming back but luckily did not manage to hurt any more babies.

Mr & Mrs Blue Tit still continued to feed the remaining chicks until they finally fledged.

I will post a link to the photo I took but I prefer not to display directly in this post because I find it distressing.

Photo here.

Marsh Tit or Willow Tit?

The new year dawned with sun and bright blue skies, but very cold. As usual the birds were very busy on the feeders and I managed to take a few photos.

This little guy (or gal) always has me puzzled - it is a Marsh Tit or Willow Tit? They are both very similar. My book says that the Willow Tit is more scruffy looking, but this one is very neat and tidy. The Marsh Tit has a smaller black bib and the Willow Tit has a heavier head and neck. I think it is probably a Marsh Tit (Parus palustris) but I would value any opinions.

This Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus Major) was also enjoying a good feed today.