I had to make do with my first Lesser Spotted Woodpecker of
the year. Unlike Great Spotted Woodpeckers he has not yet started drumming or
displaying and was most interested in a grub he must have detected and spent
over 35 minutes digging out of a quite small branch. Bearded Tits are still
present and I glimpsed one in flight although otherwise they only gave away
their presence through the occasional call. I saw three different Water Rails
in the reedbeds although none paused for me to take a photo.
In Maridalen I didn’t see either Willow Tit or Redpoll but
the Great Grey Shrike was still present. There were lots of activity from Great
Spotted Woodpeckers and I had very close views of one taking the seeds from a
spruce cone.
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| male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) - this is an unusual pose as usually the tail is held flat against the tree for support |
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| attacking the branch to get at a bug buried deep |
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| hear the head is deep in the hole it has excavated |
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| this was an old(er) hole on the other side of the branch |
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| and he was also using this to try to get to the bug |
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| in action |
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| this hole was excavated in a minimum of 35 minutes |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggpett). Here it has wedged the cone in a rotten tree and is holding it with its feet whilst trying to get the seeds out |
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| its long beak comes in useful |
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| the cone needed rearranging |
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| here the long (and strong) tail feathers can be seen which keep the woodpecker stable when its is hammering away |
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| this female Green Woodpecker (grønnspett) also showed in Maridalen |
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| the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) was of course on show |
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| for once he looked at me |
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