More Woodpeckers

I was delighted to watch this male Great spotted woodpecker , feeding his chick on the lawn this evening .

This is what they really like !

I had been lazily topping up the bird bath dishes with a watering can....... the precious water sprinkled on the grass around......wasteful...I thought to myself .... I must be more careful !
I came indoors and stood at my kitchen window just thinking about things and what I must do next , up in the vegetable garden .. Why have I had to resow parsnips and leek seeds ....why do I keep finding my newly emerging sweet peas and tiny onion sets up rooted ?
Then this beautiful female woodpecker flew down in front of the kitchen window and began pulling up grubs out of the grass around the bird bath dishes ! So ..... I realised ! We haven,t had a proper heavy rainfall for ages , the ground is dry and hard . No wonder the birds are having such a difficult time finding food and are only able to peck and forage for food in the vegetable garden seed beds , that I keep watered .
All the more reason to put out water for the birds ! I have heard that House Martins and Swifts are also finding it hard to find moist earth and mud for their nest building and on a recent Springwatch tv show ....it was recommended that folk put out trays of wet earth / mud for them . well I dont get those birds here ...we do get swallows ...not sure if they use mud ? hmm ...maybe I,ll do this and see what comes .
Anyhow up in the veg garden I will have to cover the beds with some plastic mesh . The potato hawk is doing a great job keeping the pigeons off the young cabbage plants . The chicken wire is keeping the rabbits out .The bluetits are keeping the greenfly down . The crushed eggshells , sand and toads are keeping the slugs off ,the thrush enjoys a snail ot two . The visiting cat ? ........dont get me started !

Back in the garden today .

If I didn,t put peanuts out..... then I probably wouldn,t see my friends the Woodpeckers .... but I do wrestle with the thought that it isn,t really their natural food .

Great spotted woodpecker

O.K. So I knew you wouldn,t believe me ! Here is my friend the Woodpecker. I haven,t been putting peanuts out so often ,due to the price now . ...but he is such a splendid character of a bird ....and I do love to see him .

Autumn Buzzards

 

 

The Kestrel at the Marconi Centre