Sunday walk

 

It's cold, wet and breezy with intermittent sunshine as I venture out in search of frog spawn or maybe some tadpoles. I go to my old haunt, which has been unproductive in the last two years due to a lack of rain and dry weather during spring. The frog spawn that had been previously laid soon dried up in the sunshine. This year there is no shortage of water, so I am optimistic. 

The vehicle track puddles are full of water but most look pretty barren. However in one larger one I find plenty of toad spawn so that is something to look out for in the coming weeks. There was no sign of tadpoles or any frog spawn and I suspect owing to the devastation over the past two years there are no frogs up here to lay any eggs.

Woodpecker artwork maybe and suitable places for tits to nest in, which could be why woodpeckers go after them. Below a strange paw print I came across.

When I return I hear knocking again coming from the balcony. That can only mean one thing. The woodpecker is back!

I sneak onto the balcony and finally manage capture a decent photo of the woodpecker. A couple of shots and he flies off with what appears to be something in its beak.

No sooner am I inside I hear a kerfuffle and look out to see the woodpecker has returned and is fighting with the great tits. This woodpecker is determined to gets its way and it looks like it is going to be a long drawn out battle with no good end.

I've noticed that when the great tit brings food it always calls out several times before entering the nest. This must be to alert the adult inside that it is about to come in and is maybe a way of avoiding heads colliding should the adult inside decide to come out a the same time. 

As I am writing this the woodpecker is back again. I had set up the Osmo pocket in slow-mo mode but when I check to see if it has captured the woodpecker I notice the SD card is full and it's no longer running. Damn that woodpecker!

I setup the Osmo pocket again but after filling two SD cards and recharging the batteries several times, I call it a day.

Soon after I have abandoned today's attempts to capture the woodpecker on video, it returns three more times. I knock on the window each time to scare it off but it will be back again tomorrow, you can be sure of that.