Male Great-spotted Woodpecker foraging

This sequence of a male Great-spotted Woodpecker portrait and behaviour images were taken at Stithians Southern Cut-off hide during a very wet visit yesterday but the bird was not put off by the weather and foraged through tree barks continuously for over an hour.

Stithians Southern Cut-off

I recently dropped into Stithians Reservoir southern cut-off hide looking for sightings of its illusive Water Rail.  The birds posted here all showed well and kept me busy as they fed at the feeding station and the Water Rail finally made a brief show along the water Margins long enough for me to capture half a dozen shots

Woodpeckers in flight and foraging

It was good to watch the female great Spotted Woodpecker shown above foraging for grubs under the bark of Stithians woodland trees and below you can see the movement of her head as she hammers into another trunk to start lifting more moss covered bark.

 

The Woodpecker decides to top up its natural foraging with a few peanuts from the feeder and here I have merged the first two flight shots to the third to show a montage of its movement.

Below: Not for the first time I once again witnessed a woody suddenly taking an unexpected nap directly after a good feed,  On this occasion it happened twice,  Once for fifteen minutes without any movement with its eyes closed on a favoured viewing perch which would seem appropriate but the second happened as it was climbing vertically midway up the feeder frame for about four minutes before it aborted the visit and flew off.

On one occasion in my garden a year or two back I watched this Woody Cat-napping habit occur on my garden fence for over twenty minutes and I was able to  walk within touching distance of the bird before it awoke to make a hasty departure !

Close ups of Long Tailed Tits

A squadron of raiding Long tailed Tits suddenly arrived at Stithians southern cut-off feeding station,  For ten seconds they are all on the feeder and in less than one they are all gone but I just managed to capture the last four leaving.

Images below were taken during further lightening raids during the day and I singled out individual birds that did briefly manage to stay still long enough to allow me to capture the moment.

More Great spotted Woodpecker action in my next blog at the same location !

Woodpecker Portraits

I returned to  Stithians southern cut-off hide bird feeding station where a local pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker had been showing well.

I was looking for front facing close-up portraits to add to this years portfolio so I trained my lens onto tree branches that surrounded a seed feeder which appeared to be favoured by the female.

Each time she eventually came back to the feeder location she hesitated knowing that I was close by and this gave me the opportunity to snap off several shots with good eye contact before she moved onto the feeder,

Feeder images of birds such as the image below do not fit well into wildlife portfolio but capturing the opportune moments that are presented around them certainly can be well worth the effort.

Birds at Stithians southern cut-off yesterday

While working with the Great Spotted Woodpecker recorded in the previous blog I also recorded the following birds which started with a dark form Pheasant in the fields on the way into the hide and was followed by a disturbed Grey Heron on arrival.

Next up came a feeding Coot and many rather well fed male and female Chaffinch and Blue Tits, Goldfinch and Great Tits.  A rather wet looking raiding Magpie. Two pairs of reed Bunting and to finish a fine looking pair of Bullfinch