Mating pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers resting

While my porridge was gently cooking this morning, I stood in the dining room looking down the garden. I noticed an odd shape on the trunk of the ash tree and then realised it was the back of a woodpecker clinging to it in classic style. I went into the kitchen and stirred the porridge and on my return looked for the woody again and saw a second shape, just like the first, but a few feet lower down the tree.  I realised it was time to get my camera from my desk area.

I turned off the heat under the porridge to let it settle, and opened the sliding door onto the back steps down to the patio. Standing in the doorway I just watched them on the off chance that I could catch them flying away together. The tree is at the bottom of the garden and so is quite a distance away. They did move around a little individually but seemed to be resting, with the male above the female. Occasionally they circled round the trunk whenever a larger bird flew near to them.

When they did finally fly away, separately as it happens, I missed the first one, and was a bit slow to react with the second. But I caught its back amongst the branches and have added it as an ‘Extra’, at least for a few days. I love the way their spots are revealed when in flight.