Green woodpecker on pole, and a pigeon

Jason, our new plumber, was arriving at 9am this morning, so I got up in plenty of time, made tea and gave Bomble his food. I watched some birds eating from the sunflower feeder hanging from the rhus tree and was amused to see a very young blackbird finally managing to eat from it, by hovering in flight beside it and pecking from the container's holes.  That is a new development as I've always thought that like robins, they weren't able to access the hanging feeders.

A great crested woodpecker then flew up to eat peanuts from the other hanging feeder. As I watched a very fast and quite large brown winged bird flew across all the rear gardens, jus above the hedges, but I couldn't tell what bird it was.  I wondered whether it was a sparrowhawk, which do visit the garden very occasionally.

A few minutes later I watched the great crested woodpecker fly away and land halfway up on the side of the nearby electricity supply pole in the next door garden. I looked up and saw that a green woodpecker was perched near the top of the same pole. I refocused and watched it for a while and realised it was probably a juvenile. It spent a long time pecking into the cracks in the wood of the pole, as well as grooming its feathers. The top seat of the pole is a popular perch for many big birds, such as crows, pigeons, magpies as well as the various woodpeckers.

A couple of years ago a green woodpecker made a hole in the rather old and decrepit ash tree at the bottom of our garden. I blipped the face of a juvenile woodpecker peeking out of the hole. Now I am wondering whether another nest has produced a brood.  I was delighted to see it as they are very rarely spotted here.  I couldn't resist this shot with the pigeon flying past it before landing on the wires.  The woodpecker looked at it but didn't budge. The landscape in the rear distance shows the far side of the Golden Valley, beyond the main road, the canal and the main railway line, where Butterow rises up the hill towards Rodborough common.