Earlier this month I saw for the first time a Green Woodpecker in my back garden, it was a juvenile, later to be seen as a male, that was often seen in the school grounds at the back of my house. The first glimpse was just that, a fleeting view as it looked around close to a decked area and then it was off.

Today I got home and Karen spurted out “Steve it’s that peck, peck, wood, THAT BIRD!” I was catching up at the pc on work emails and looked up and the Green Woodpecker was on the grass just under a rotary clothesline searching for its fav food, ants.

I rushed to change the lens on my camera, normally it always has the 400mm lens attached but on this occasion it did not as I had done the wedding photo’s for a close family friend over the weekend and had not changed it back. So I rushed to change over to the 400mm lens and as I was doing so I was saying to myself (possibly out loud too!) “stay there!, stay there!” to the pecker 🙂

I dare not go to the conservatory as I am aware of how skittish these birds are so a bedroom window would suffice (sounds dodgy taking pics from a bedroom window with a monster lens on it I know!!). Eventually I rattled a few pics off and below you can see half a dozen shots of the juvenile male, lovely to see this species so close.
The bird went into next doors garden after about 15 minutes with us, hope it comes back 🙂