Finding a Green Woodpeckers’ nest

There’s the loud laugh of a Green Woodpecker in the woods. My friend abandons his camera and bag and rushes wildly into the trees. We eventually find him staring at a range of trees with holes in them in the middle of the woods. We think one of them must be their nest.

We come back the next week and wait. And wait. There’s no sign of anything. Then we hear a call and see the hint of a beak peeping out of the hole. One must be in there on the eggs. Another call and it squeezes out of the hole and is gone. Its mate replaces it. They are extremely cautious birds so we withdraw to a safe distance and I go back to the car for a hide for us to sit and watch and wait in.

The hide works a treat. This is a bird which can see an ant from the top of a tree, so we even have to pull down the camouflage-printed gauze through which our lenses stick. I’m sure they’ll see our hand movements otherwise and even a blink is too much for them. The future of their entire family is at stake. It’s no wonder they are cautious.

We have to be even more cautious than they are.

Green Woodpeckers are large and impressive birds. I’m determined to get much better photographs. That’ll mean many visits, the use of a small portable chair hide, and copious quantities of hot tea from a flask.

I’m up for the challenge.

I can see more posts on Green Woodpeckers in my immediate future.