Great Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major )

30 days wild day Day 25.

Looking back over my "Days wild" photos I realised how few bird shots I had done.  Currently, the adults are feeding a couple of fledglings (sometimes the fledglings come on their own).  So a shot of one of the Woodpeckers seemed appropriate.  Previously we have remarked on how they aren't as easily frightened.   Wrong! Well, today they weren't prepared to pose.  Finally, I managed by crawling the length of the room, inching the camera off the table, and shooting round a chair back.

The blip is of the female, recognisable, not in this shot, as she has no red on the nape.  The male has a red nape and the immatures have a totally red cap.  GSW are doing well the population peaked early this millennium with around 5 times as many birds as in the 70s.  Apart from the very north of Scotland, some of the islands and the high mountains GSW are now fairly evenly distributed throughout the British Isles.