C.Rayz's photos with the keyword: Great Spotted Woodpecker

Male with big juicy caterpillar or slug maybe. We were walking along a hedged path in Hastings Country Park NR and we hear this noise close by, sounded like a bird of sorts but also a bit like a house alarm, it just was so constant and consistant. As we moved forward there just above the path was a large hole in a old dead tree and the noise coming from it. We soon noticed both parents winding around the trees near by gathering food for the young in the hole. I so badly wanted 'the' shot of one of them feeding, but they just weren't having it. The male here, sat nicely for photos about 5ft away from the nest, but refushed to go feed with us there. We only stayed a few minutes as not to disturb them too badly and it was obvious this wasn't his first rodeo, as we say in the states...lol Gorgeous birds, so we took a few snaps because normally they are so far up in the trees its hard to get a nice shot.

This guy was already ringed about a month earlier, so just a quick check of all his vital statistics and progress and away he went. I might say here that if you ever find a bird that is ringed, alive or as in most cases dead, its well worth getting in touch with the British Trust for Ornithology and reporting it. They can then get vital information these rings are intended to produce.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Juvenile being weighed and measured and those amounts being compared to same ones from a month earlier when the bird was first captured and given a ring.

By blowing on the feathers of this area they can see the birds skin and measure the amount of fat stores seen through it.