Pied Drummer

I always want to call the great spotted woodpecker the pied woodpecker. Now I know why. It's because I'm ancient. I brought back The Observer's Book Of Birds, that I used to pore over as a child, from the family home. The old alternative name is in bold above the pic in the book.

I heard a pied woodpecker drumming the other morning when I was down the field with my dog. I fleetingly spotted it but didn't manage a capture.

I photographed this in a weeping willow tree at Fishers Green from the Bittern Hide where I was sheltering from the showers. It felt like being in a boat at sea. The timbers were creaking alarmingly in the high wind. There were even white horses on the Seventy Acres Lake waves.

The bird was struggling to stay put in the tree. Notice how it is using its tail to steady itself.