"I Hear You Knocking ...."

I went for a walk around Seventy Acres Lake and could hear a woodpecker drumming. It took me ages to pinpoint it high in a tree. Not a great pic but the first I have taken of a woodpecker doing what they are known for. It was very busy carving out a nesting hole. It looks like it has chosen a part of the tree that is diseased so the the wood might be a bit softer than healthy wood but it is still amazing that these birds don't injure their brains.

Researchers have found that unequal upper and lower beak lengths and a spongy, plate-like, bone structure protects the birds' brains. For years, scientists have examined the anatomy of woodpeckers' skulls to find out how they pull off their powerful pecking without causing themselves harm.

The birds have little "sub-dural space" between their brains and their skulls, so the brain does not have room to bump around as it does in humans. Also, their brains are longer top-to-bottom than front-to-back, meaning the force against the skull is spread over a larger brain area.

A highly-developed bone called the hyoid - which in humans is just above the "Adam's apple" - has also been studied: starting at the underside of the birds' beaks, it makes a full loop through their nostrils, under and around the back of their skulls, over the top and meeting again before the forehead.This has a protective effect.

Hope one of the ring necked parakeets that have recently arrived at Fishers Green doesn't steal its nest hole.