Into May and more birds starting to appear, especially now that we have more feeders out in the garden, great for me because they're right outside this window and most exciting of all, a Great Spotted Woodpecker appeared on the nut feeder for the first of many, many visits. I have taken SO many shots of these beautiful birds, I've had to get really critical and delete a lot of them.
Great Spotted Woodpecker male
Pied Wagtail posing on the fence
The Wagtails are now regular visitors, I'm pretty sure they are a pair, they're always together, bobbing around in the garden.
Yellowhammers are starting to put in random appearances but spend more time out in the fields and surrounding hedges. I've now noticed that both sexes look very similar but the males start to colour up as Spring arrives, getting far brighter.
Yellowhammer in the tree
I guess the star of my days now are the woodpeckers, visiting the feeders much more frequently and quite aware of me in the window with my camera.
Great Spotted Woodpecker female
I now see the red neck patch on the male woodpecker, which doesn't appear on the female, see the first shot of a male. Of course, you can't always see that but, the shot above was only one of many I took of that bird during that visit so, I know the red patch is missing.
The woodpeckers are quite comical to watch, they zoom in from somewhere to our left, disappear behind the tree trunk then, start peeping out to see if there's anyone around, at the same time, often running up and down the trunk so, you never know where they will appear next.
Being able to watch them so often and so closely, I also now see them take peanuts from the feeder, run up the tree trunk and "hide" them in the bark. Whether as a cache for themselves later or to teach their young to search the tree bark?
I'm sure if I do some more research I'll find an answer but, let's wait and see if or when any young birds turn up?
I spent a fair bit of May visiting my folks and getting settled into the new house, hence not quite as many shots, I was also still working at this point, although I was working from home, sitting at this desk, next to my wildlife window!
