I'm going to make my first proper blog entry about the woodpeckers in my garden. It started in May, just before my final exams. My boyfriend and I were eating breakfast in the kitchen, getting ready for a university trip to Rutland Waters to see the Ospreys. My boyfriend says to me;
"There's a woodpecker on the feeder"
I didn't look and told him he was teasing me (he often does this). He insisted there was. I looked out the window and sure enough, there was! Seeing that woodpecker was better than seeing the Ospreys later that morning. I tend to find when you see a bird by surprise for the first time in a place special to you, it is more exciting than driving miles to see a rare bird that you know you're going to see.
Since then, the woodpeckers (a male and female) came to the feeder nearly every day.
We have since had many other exciting birds in the garden including a jay, goldfinches, nuthatches, long tailed tits, our first house sparrow and a bullfinch. These are all so exciting since we live on a new estate, and for a long time we had no birds at all, we didn't even have bird song in the morning. Now since myself and my neighbours have been feeding the birds, the place has came alive!
Unfortunately though, we have a lot of cheeky squirrels - I may post a blog about them at a later date.
For a few weeks, I did not see the woodpeckers very often at all. I was getting worried, since we had new neighbours move in a couple of weeks ago, who have a very noisy dog. I wondered if this had scared them off.
However yesterday I saw this:
A juvenile woodpecker! Our pair had been successful. Today I saw two Juveniles with dad, and I have also seen the mum. This has indeed made me very happy. I hope the pair decide to nest in our area again next year. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy seeing the juveniles in our garden, with their punky red hair.
P.s. here is a link to my friend's blog: http://wildenvironmentalist.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2012-03-15T10:53:00Z&max-results=5&start=5&by-date=false
