Posts Tagged: black woodpecker
Uproar in the Woods
Today, during my morning walk through the woods with Spike, the alarm was raised. From a distance, I could already hear the call of the Black Woodpecker, but the crows, a Eurasian Jay, and the titmice were also making quite a racket—thanks to a bird language course with Wurzeltrapp, I now pay attention to such things. Unfortunately, due to the dense canopy, I couldn’t make out who was responsible for all the commotion, but it must have been something dangerous.
At any rate, the young Black Woodpecker perched on the exposed branches of a dead tree, allowing me to snap a few pictures. Beautiful? The bird, certainly; the perspective and lighting, definitely not—but then again, I have only ever seen a Black Woodpecker on the forest floor once before, and it was back up in the treetops faster than I could even raise my camera. A treehouse in the canopy and a boat for the lakes… now that would be a dream come true.
Black woody Jr.
My suspicion, based on the frequency of my recent black woodpecker sightings—from zero to one per week—was that the large hole in the tree where it was hanging and calling loudly last time was probably important. On Friday, I took up position, and after Josh called me back to the stag beetle. On my return I found the young sitting at the hole, looking for food. I was anything but quiet, and walkers with dogs kept passing by, which is probably why they wasn’t any feeding. After 20 minutes, I left.
Not only was the woodpecker hungry, but on top of that, the 5 kg that my camera weighs aren’t easy to hold handheld for long. Next step: Buy a travel tripod and attach it to my bike somehow. A comfortable camping seat and some camouflage would also be helpful. We’ll see if it’s still there next week—until then, unfortunately, it’s “no time” again
