Great Spotted Woodpecker

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 There is a blizzard blowing this morning so I am using archive photographs. This is a spring time photograph of a great spotted woodpecker in our garden. These are the only sort of woodpecker we have in the garden and they visit most days. I have heard green woodpeckers not far away but they don't visit the garden (I think they feed on ants nests and aren't attracted to feeders)

The rather splendid bird in the photograph is an adult male as can be told from the red patch at the back of the head. (Juveniles have a red crown, and adult females have no red on the head at all).

These birds nest nearby and can often be heard "drumming" especially in the Spring as they look for mates (I heard one yesterday which is what prompted me to write about them). The next photograph I took yesterday of a dead tree in the orchard that woodpeckers have pecked holes in. I think these have been looking for food as I am not aware of them having been used for nesting.

Woodpeckers have some special adaptations to enable them to occupy their ecological niche. They have a different arrangement of toes from most birds. Two to the front and two to the  back the better to grip on tree trunks whilst they search for insects. They also have special "shock absorbers" to allow they to peck hard without giving themselves concussion!
I normally hear these birds before I see them as they have a characteristic shard "keek" call. Their charcteristic undulating flight helps to identify them at a distance.

Diary Notes.
It was snowing through the night. I captured two images of a badger but I think it was the same individual on two separate cameras. The badgers are out even at the height of the blizzard. 
I noticed a small tortoishell butterfly asleep in the porch- they are one off the butterfly species that overwinter as adults and are consequently one of the first we see on the wing in the Spring. Lots of long tailed tits around yesterday 8?
To finish off here are a couple of photos of the house and meadow in a brief sunny interval in the snow this morning.






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