Thursday 9 June 2011

Green woodpeckers leave the nest

This morning the green woodpeckers that I'd been watching finally left the nest. I'm still not too sure how many chicks there were as I saw 3 but more may have left earlier in the day.
I quickly realised that today was a big day in their lives when the adults were continually flying around the nest trees calling like mad but not actually bringing food to the nest.
Eventually the male bird landed below the nest with a beak ful of food and proceeded to tempt the first youngster out of the nest. When it happened the sun had gone in and it was raining which dropped my shutter speed to 1/50th sec. It was a rather unceremonious occasion for the chick as it over-reached and tumbled out with wings flapping and claws flailing for grip.


Green woodpecker chick

Male at the nest
Tempting the chick out with food
An unceremonious exit
Just fledged.
One in and one out.

5 comments:

Sam and Lisa said...

Hi Adrian, I have been on Holiday so I am just catching up on a few blogs. I guess a hide and loads of patiences was needed for these shots. Brilliant as usuall.
Sam

Adrian Langdon said...

thanks Sam, you're right about the hide and the patience although I was getting quite frustrated that when the light was perfect on the side of the tree the adults were nowhere to be seen!
As soon as it rained and the light was awful they then got active. Perhaps its something they do intentionaly?

Bobbster said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bobbster said...

Well Adrian despite the poor light you still got some quality images.

Trademark Lawyer said...

These are some brilliant images of them interacting!