The Woodpecker

It started off a foggy rainy day but by early afternoon the sun had come out so I headed to my favourite birding hide at Forest Farm, Coryton, Cardiff (Wales, UK).

Not long after settling in the Kingfisher appeared and I managed a nice one of it swallowing a fish but the highlight of the couple of hours was the appearance of the Great Spotted Woodpecker on a tree at the side of the hide. It's a photograph I've been wanting to get for a long time...it was only there for seconds but I managed it!

The great spotted woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and is catholic in its diet, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests. It breeds in holes excavated in living or dead trees, unlined apart from wood chips. The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs, feed the chicks and keep the nest clean. When the young fledge they are fed by the adults for about ten days, each parent taking responsibility for feeding part of the brood.