Great Spotted Woodpeckers At The Set-up

I was always reasonably confident that woodpeckers would eventually find the feeders as they were often in the trees calling and drumming when I was around, so it really wasn’t a surprise when one decided to come to the feeders. I didn’t have much interest in capturing an image of a woodpecker on the feeders, so I had to get them trained to go where I wanted them to be.

Training animals to go where you want them to is normally quite straight forward, you just put food where you want them to go, so all I needed a nice branch for them to fly to. I only want a positive impact on the area, so I’m not a fan of cutting down branches to use as perches, especially big ones. Often branches that are on the ground are more attractive from a photography perspective because they get covered in moss and fungi as they start to rot, so they are my preferred choice. My first woodpecker perch wasn’t too pretty, but it would do to start with as initially it was only about getting them used to coming to a specific location.

I drilled some holes in it that I would stuff with peanuts and fat balls every time I checked the feeders. Unfortunately, within a couple of days it was clear that the squirrels had discovered this easy meal. The cheeky critters had even gnawed away at the branch to get at the food that was deeper in the holes. But I continued to fill the holes with food, hoping that a woodpecker would make it down one day before the squirrels had eaten all of the food. I wasn’t worried if the squirrels destroyed this branch as this was only stage one of Operation Woodpecker Picture.

One afternoon I was going for simple ‘bird on a stick’ shots from the hide, with the woodpecker perch off to my right. I had just bagged a couple of nice shots of long-tailed tits when some movement caught my eye off to the right. I looked to the woodpecker perch and it was living up to its name! There was actually a female great spotted woodpecker investigating the perch, I couldn’t believe it. Even though the angle was not great and I was too far away, I had to get a record shot of this historic moment. I slowly panned the camera off to the right and took a shot. She worked her way up the branch and found one of the holes with food in. But then I heard another woodpecker calling, surely I wasn’t going to end up with two on the branch? I did! A male flew in and started checking out the branch and I was able to get a shot of the moment before the female chased him away. Wow! I was so chuffed that my plan had worked, I was buzzing. Now for a better looking perch…

The first perch and that magic moment when both the male (bottom) and female graced me with their presence.

I cut a straight branch from an already fallen tree that was beautifully covered with moss and lichen. Some holes were drilled and filled with the usual peanuts and fat balls, and I returned the next day to try and get some shots. During a session that lasted 3 hours, the woodpecker came in four times and it was clear that the holes were in the wrong place. Every time the bird came in, it wasn’t exposed enough, and all I got were head shots as it peered from behind the branch. Not what I wanted!

The next morning I drilled a couple more holes that would hopefully bring the bird to the side of the branch more, meaning I could get a full body shot. Unfortunately the squirrels had found the food in this branch now and had peeled away some of the bark, but I could still work with it.

I got the shot! How stunning is the male great spotted woodpecker? 😍

I got cosy (as cosy as you can get when it’s only a couple of degrees above freezing) in the hide and waited. After about half an hour I could hear a woodpecker calling in the trees behind me and it was getting closer. I woke my camera, focused on the branch, and readied myself. Suddenly there was a woodpecker in my view finder and it wasn’t behind the branch! Everything had fallen into place, it felt fantastic. During one of the male’s three visits over a four hour session I did hear another woodpecker calling in the trees close by, which I assume was the female, but she never came down. Needless to say, I went home pretty happy after that session. My mood changed on my next visit though…

I returned after two days to check the feeders and I discovered that the squirrels had returned to my lovely woodpecker branch again. However, this time they weren’t as kind to it. More bark had been removed to the point where the branch was no longer useable. I now have to find a way of squirrel-proofing these woodpecker branches before this one is replaced. I’m thinking about land mines, but I reckon that could also scare the birds away! All joking aside, I have some squirrel-friendly ideas that I will test out on my rather sorry looking branch before I commit to replacing it and I will let you know if it works, or if the squirrels are still getting the better of me!