Viewing entries tagged
Great Spotted Woodpecker
If it wasn't for Llandegfedd's Feeding Station this winter, I'd be pretty depressed with all this bad weather! If it's not raining, it's dark and if it's not dark, it's windy! Sat inside a hide is the best way to go when the weather is bad and to be fair, it has got me out of the house more often knowing that I have a dry hide to take refuge in.
Female Great Spotted Woodpeckers are slightly bigger than the males and since yesterday I showcased the Male, I thought I'd give you a close up of the female so that you can see the differences for yourself. Note the back of the head does not have a Red patch? That's the main difference between the 2. Males use this Red patch to display to other males but why is it on the back of the head and not the front? Well, if you think of their general activities, they are usually face forward on a tree trunk which means the back of the bird is viewed more than the front, which would explain why that Red patch is on the back so that other males can see how dominant they are. This also helps attract females on the scene and the larger, more vibrant the red patch, the more chance he has to mate with her. That said, the male has to do a lot more than that to impress a female and their drumming skills play a huge part in their success. It's not about speed, but about matching the frequency of the drum (log) by hitting the log at the right speed. For instance, they can knock at 10-40 beats per second but they need to match that to the frequency of the log so the log resonates fully. The more resonance, the more projection which will result in larger territories and more chance of keeping a female. Despite their back reputation for drilling nest boxes, I do really love Woodpeckers.
It's about time! I've been trying to get a half decent shot of a woodpecker for a while and today was the day, for whatever reason. A male and female showed well throughout the day eating both the peanuts on the feeders and the fat balls. Took a bit of temptation to get them on this log however, which actually has a funny story to it. I made a small mess feeder to go on the other side of the log out of sight but that feeder didn't last long as it took all of 3 seconds for the Squirrel to bite through the cable tie and run off with it. I chased him in the hope he would drop it but nope.. he just carried on and brought it up the tree with him. Little bugger! Took me all of 15 minutes to make that feeder lol. Next time it will be squirrel proof with a little trip to B&Q in the morning for some metal cable ties lol.
