Wonderful Woodpeckers

Woodpecker watching has become the highlight of my mornings. About a month ago hubby and I heard tapping coming from an old tree stump up in the wood. We circled it but could not see what was making the noise – it was coming from inside the trunk. On later walks nothing more was heard but one day I took a stick and tapped the trunk of a neighbouring tree and lo and behold a woodpecker popped out from the old stump. I went round to see which hole it had flown out of but there were several. So I hung about and saw it go in and out a few times. Aha! A woodpecker home building! The tapping noise we heard earlier would be it digging out the hole. Apparently they do not make a nest in the hole as the cavity is enough, although it may have woodchips naturally lining the bottom of it. I read that they have one brood a year and lay between 2 to 7 eggs.

Since then I’ve been going up to watch the hole from a distance. Two weeks ago I could hear the repetitive high pitched “nyeep,nyeep, nyeep,nyeep” coming from the tree remains. The chick or chicks had hatched. I watched Ma and Pa woodpecker relaying beakfuls of grubs to the hole.

The male woodpecker has the bright red spot on its head, the female’s head is black and white only. The first week of watching them the adults would sometimes disappear right into the hole.

By the end of the first week of watching the chick/chicks were beginning to show their heads when the parents approached with food and I could see them being fed beak to beak. In the photo below it looks like a woodland pixie is offerning a helping hand!

I was intrigued to see Pa carrying something out of the nest hole last week. I was worried it might be a dead chick, however more likely he was just tidying away a fecal sac.

The last couple of days I have observed a chick getting bolder and showing more of his head as he continues to cry ever louder for his grub.

Then today he was poking his head even further out of the nest at times. I was observing with a friend and she thought that the parents were almost deliberately perched on neighbouring trees trying to coax the youngster out to get its food.

My friend also wondered if perhaps there were two chicks, one with a slightly lighter red patch and also a bit more timid. I have read that juvenile woodpeckers both have red heads but the female’s patch is lighter in colour than the male’s. This chick in the photo below has its eyes closed as it savours its meal. I reckon this is a male chick that I’m seeing more of and perhaps the chick holding back is the female.

I will return again to my woodland watching spot just before noon. It will be interesting to see if the chick or chicks fledge next week. Watch this space…