Getting the hang of it

Another late blip and I've been out night birding again. I failed to see my target bird, but saw a woodcock roding and on my drive home I saw at least 3 Nightjars - one on a fencepost, one in the air and one in the road, like so many youths hanging around on a street corner. Of course it was pretty dark and on my approach, they scattered.

However, that does give me the excuse to blip this juvenile male Great Spotted Woodpecker - a first for our garden. We looked out of the kitchen window at teatime, just as it flew in. It looked ravenous and set to work on the fat coconut. We watched it struggle getting to grips with this and various other feeders and tried and failed to get up the post with the feeders on it. A couple of times it retreated to a nearby telegraph pole and prospected for holes, where it fared slightly better. I had always expected to see a Woodpecker in our old garden, as they were in the area and there were lots of trees, but never did, so to see one here, where it is mostly farmland and moor was a real but very pleasant surprise. I hope it comes back