Sunday 16 December 2012

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker

Talk about being in the right place at the right time ..... I was literally just positioning the camcorder to video anything of interest attracted by my home made peanut butter feeder when a female Great Spotted Woodpecker arrived. At least, I assume it was a female and not a juvenile. The adult male has a red patch on the back of its neck.

This one stayed for a couple of minutes and was the first bird I have seen see off a Starling which tried to barge in on the act. Just as well as once the Starling brat pack arrives it is difficult for other birds to get a look in.



Audio track was made using the Animoog app on an iPad2
The peanut butter used is specially formulated without salt for feeding to wildlife. Many varieties made for human consumption have added salt which is not good for the birds.
It looks as though I got the length of the log just about right as woodpeckers press their tail feathers against the wood for balance as they cling on.

8 comments:

  1. That's a nice sequence John. She was certainly tucking into that butter.

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    1. Thank you Roy. She was determined to get her fair share.

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  2. She is a she. the young ones don't have such white feathers and nor do the males their plumage is a bit cream coloured. They are beautiful.
    Now what she really wants is a peanut feeder buried in the ground with twenty or thirty little holes full of goodies. Peanut butter and worms mixed?

    I have up to five here but only one female. They ate me out of peanuts...twice! They like the fat balls I have and can easily get through six a day.
    I am leaving tomorrow so the farmers son who is ten and had never seen a Woodpecker has a tub of sixty fat balls for them.

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    Replies
    1. That's the first time I've seen a female this year so now I have at least one of each visiting now and then. I got my latest batch of fat balls from a different supplier and they are lasting really well as the birds don't seem to like them as much as the ones I usually get.

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  3. Lovely video John. Great birds to see, but I don't get them in my garden.

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  4. I didn't know that bird friendly, salt free peanut butter was availablt for birds! Excellent stuff.

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  5. I didn't know that bird friendly, salt free peanut butter was available for birds. Excellent!

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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