Mainly about Woodpeckers and the dog who thought he was a chicken

 During the current lockdown my birding activity has pretty much , well actually entirely,  been limited to my hide set up on my property near Pirton in Worcestershire. There have certainly been tempting birds to twitch, Greater Yellowlegs, stonking male Desert Wheatear and Craig Martin to name a few, of which I’ve seen precisely 0, 1 and 0 of respectively in the UK, but traveling the sort of distances involved just doesn’t sit well with me morally during lockdown. I’m sure I will enjoy twitching even more when I’m allowed to, abstinence makes the heart grow fonder after all! Looking at the great buffoon’s comments on Monday it looks as though the rules might let me twitch when lockdown ends next week.

In the meantime my hide is still set up next to the biggest of our ponds and, while the winter Thrushes seem to have mainly moved to pastures anew, there has been plenty of other activity to keep me interested.

 

We have four species of Woodpeckers that it is possible, with a certain amount of effort, to see in the UK. The commonest, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, has benefited enormously from the recent trend to feed garden birds and they are now seen regularly on peanut feeders. Green Woodpeckers are the next most common but you won’t see them on a bird feeder as their diet consist almost entirely of ants taken on the ground. Next comes the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a bird  whose numbers have sadly declined enormously in recent years. Most people would now have to travel to one of their remaining woodland strongholds to see them, for example the New Forest. The reason for their decline is not entirely clear.  I read a  paper reviewing their decline which said that their winter mortality rate was comparatively low but their breeding success, i.e how many young a pair successfully fledge on average, was very poor. The paper suggested that while their winter survival rate seems ok, they are entering the breeding season in poor condition hence their lack of breeding success. There has been speculation that humans have inadvertently caused this by helping Great Spotted Woodpeckers, who they perhaps compete with for food, thrive through our garden feeding efforts. If you are lucky enough to find a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker it will be immediately obvious by its diminutive size, it being barely larger than a Sparrow. A family member once asked me if their name came from the fact that they weren’t spotted very often. With hindsight, the laughter that followed was perhaps misplaced as indeed they are sadly not spotted very often at all. The fourth and final Woodpecker you have a chance of seeing in the UK is one of my favourite birds, the cryptic Wryneck. Very sadly, the Wryneck is now lost to us as a breeding species in the UK so your only chance of seeing one is on passage to and from their continental breeding grounds, mainly in early Autumn. They again feed almost exclusive on ants and can be surprisingly confiding when found in the UK.

 

I have been lucky enough in the past two weeks to have had both Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers come to my pond while I was in my hide. A pair of the former landed on the fallen tree at the back of my pond and very cautiously made their way down its branches to drink allowing a few reflection shots to be captured. They seemed a little anxious, of what I’m not sure, and did not stay long. On Sunday a Green Woodpecker landed on the same fallen tree and I was expecting the same behaviour. To my astonishment, however, it flew into the pond, immersed itself quite deeply and had a good old wash. Perhaps, as was the case when I was a little boy, Sunday was bath day!

 

Here are pictures of Greater Spotted and Green Woodpeckers taken from my hide recently.

 

Here are pictures of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Wryneck taken a while ago in the New Forest and Spurn respectively.

 

 I’m also blessed with regular pond visits from a pair of Grey Wagtails. Their colouration maybe a little less in your face than their summer migrant cousins, the Yellow Wagtail, but I find the gentle mixture of yellows and greys most attractive and appealing. Getting a decent reflection shot on the pond is a bit hit or miss depending on how windy it is and how actively my resident flock of 15 or so Mallards are but things came together quite well for this shot. It’s from a platform that I guess previous owners put in the middle of the pond for ducks.

 

We have at least one pair of Collared Doves semi resident in the garden. Collared Doves are one of our comparatively few avian success stories. Going back 100 years or so you would have needed to visit the middle east to see one. Since then they have rapidly spread across Europe reaching UK in the 1950’s and are now comparatively common UK birds.

 

My red setter, Dillion, is a most peculiar dog, proof if needed that the old adage that dogs take after their owners is quite wrong ! He seems to currently believe that he is a chicken. He would be quite happy, if allowed, to spend all day with them either sitting down and watching them or walking around the paddocks with them as the cluck and scratch the ground in search of insects. It’s quite a job to persuade him to come in! Sadly, the sarcoma on his leg has reoccurred and has again been removed. Fortunately, it is ranked as low grade and he is going to have a course of Chemotherapy to try and eliminate it. The in joke is that we could have brought a Cruffs champion for what the poor chap has cost us so far. Still we both passionately believe that when you take on care of an animal you take totally responsibility for its welfare and he is the most adorable and loving of dogs so all fingers crossed!

 

We have started work on a few exterior home improvement projects. The steps up to our main door were in a poor state and we have found a very friendly local odd job man called Paul who has done a lot of work on listed buildings. He is slow but very meticulous and has many good suggestions. He has completely rebuilt our front steps  with lovely reclaimed York stone. When he’s finished he’s going to start work on rebuilding Carolyn’s tack room adjacent to our stables. We also have a lovely Victorian style greenhouse on order but it’s on 30 weeks delivery! With people spending much more time at home it seems that things like greenhouses have become very popular. We though about compromising and getting something cheaper and easier to get hold of but we are both adamant that we are not moving again so decided to wait for what we really want.

 

I suspect that the previous owners weren’t into gardening as quite a lot of the garden has been covered with gravel. We have an area behind our house that looked ripe for a gardening project and I have cleared the gravel from the first area with the intention of creating a late summer hot border.  It is now planted up with red and orange Crocosmia that we brought with us from Rack End, dog wood to provide some winter colour and six of our favourite  David Austin English roses. In the early spring I will finish the planting with red and yellow dark leaved bishop dahlias and red and purple perennial lobelias. Our plan is also to pave the remaining gravel area and install a water feature to create a lovely spot for a summers evening BBQ and G&T!

 

 

I have to say that in common with most people I absolutely hate this new version of blogger, it reduces the sharpness of pictures, changes fonts at random and hyperlinks don't copy thumbnails - if it ain't bloke don't fix it!!

 Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!