A woodpecker in the garden
Discussion
Amazingly (since we live in London), we have a pair of woodpeckers in our garden, who have made a nest in an old apple tree (also in our garden) in which they are raising young.
I've been trying to take some pics for a while now, and have hardly any worth mentioning, but a couple are acceptable (click on the image for the bigger version):
(Definitely have to replace that 75-300 USM lens ...)
You may say 'amazingly', but actually I think you could be more likely to see some creatures in London than other places. For example, I used to see woodpeckers and foxes very often in London, but I haven't seen any here in Essex. (I've only seen a green woodpecker a few times in the garden.)
Gemm said:
You may say 'amazingly', but actually I think you could be more likely to see some creatures in London than other places. For example, I used to see woodpeckers and foxes very often in London, but I haven't seen any here in Essex. (I've only seen a green woodpecker a few times in the garden.)
Well I don't think you can count the foxes, those in London are mangy, scrawny things that wouldn't last a minute without a cityful of bins to dig through.
I've lived in London for 16 years and certainly never had woodpecker actually nesting in the garden before, so I certainly think its pretty amazing. Though to be fair I mainly think its amazing as we have two cats AND two small boys and the nest, which has been made in the last two months (since we moved in), is less then 4 feet off the ground

tertius said:
Well I don't think you can count the foxes, those in London are mangy, scrawny things that wouldn't last a minute without a cityful of bins to dig through.
I've lived in London for 16 years and certainly never had woodpecker actually nesting in the garden before, so I certainly think its pretty amazing. Though to be fair I mainly think its amazing as we have two cats AND two small boys and the nest, which has been made in the last two months (since we moved in), is less then 4 feet off the ground

If you say so.
s500 said:
There are Woodpeckers in Holland Park, hear them every day when I go to work, haven't spotted one yet though, unlike the squawking parrots flying around everywhere.
That's where I lived.
Edited by Gemm on Monday 7th May 09:35
Edited by Gemm on Monday 7th May 09:35
Gemm said:
tertius said:
Well I don't think you can count the foxes, those in London are mangy, scrawny things that wouldn't last a minute without a cityful of bins to dig through.
I've lived in London for 16 years and certainly never had woodpecker actually nesting in the garden before, so I certainly think its pretty amazing. Though to be fair I mainly think its amazing as we have two cats AND two small boys and the nest, which has been made in the last two months (since we moved in), is less then 4 feet off the ground

If you say so.
Umm, I think I'd know if I'd had one in my own garden before.
Gemm said:
s500 said:
There are Woodpeckers in Holland Park, hear them every day when I go to work, haven't spotted one yet though, unlike the squawking parrots flying around everywhere.
That's where I lived.
Well if your garden is Holland Park you obviously have a slightly larger garden than me ...
tertius said:
GetCarter said:
That is unbelievable - I assume that is cropped out of a larger image, otherwise your presetting is fairly otherworldly ...
'Tis a crop (though not much of one as I recall). I set focus on the peanuts in right center frame hoping that the beasties would land on the 'correct' side.
As I say, I didn't take the photo - the zigview did.
some others it managed to do whilst I was drinking beer:
(nice bum)
nice tit
I do like the first one best of the three.
If I can put my geeky hat on for a moment you've got the female there as she doesn't have the red feathers on the nape of her neck like the male does.
Also the parrots are ring necked parakeets. Since coming into the country they have been very successful in the wild and are now a common sight in the south. Around Kingston they are all over the shop and we have a group of them living on the common in our area.
Gemm is absolutely right that it is very common to see these various animals in our gardens now. As we get more and more built up there is less wild sapce and also the animals get habituated to us and use all bits of available ground. Way cool to have the woodpeckers nesting in your garden, the best we can manage is a mangy fox who occasionally uses the patio for a sunbathe and the goldfinches who are doing their best to eat us out of niger seed.
Cheers
Chris
Edited to add: I've had a go at cleaning this up a bit, hope you don't mind. Chris
If I can put my geeky hat on for a moment you've got the female there as she doesn't have the red feathers on the nape of her neck like the male does.
Also the parrots are ring necked parakeets. Since coming into the country they have been very successful in the wild and are now a common sight in the south. Around Kingston they are all over the shop and we have a group of them living on the common in our area.
Gemm is absolutely right that it is very common to see these various animals in our gardens now. As we get more and more built up there is less wild sapce and also the animals get habituated to us and use all bits of available ground. Way cool to have the woodpeckers nesting in your garden, the best we can manage is a mangy fox who occasionally uses the patio for a sunbathe and the goldfinches who are doing their best to eat us out of niger seed.
Cheers
Chris
Edited to add: I've had a go at cleaning this up a bit, hope you don't mind. Chris
Edited by CVP on Tuesday 8th May 15:01
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