So I was trundling along the path with my wheel barrow, when I saw some jays flapping around with a tufty looking bird nearby. I thought he might be a young jay, but he had a long beak, and after he turned around a few times, I saw there was a red tinge to his head and green to his body. He wasn’t fully colourful because he still had his young fluffy brown feathers, but I could see his shape was distinctively a woodpecker.
Woodpeckers are ace!
By now he had hopped a bit further on and was standing with his chest puffed out. I crept closer and took a photo. He didn’t fly away so I kept on creeping. My phone is shitty, so I knew the photos wouldn’t be great, but I kept on creeping up to see how close I could get. At one point Mike walked up from the opposite direction and saw me. He stopped where he was so he would scare my new fluffy friend away. Woody Woodpecker gave me a few more poses, hopping around before flying off.
Then I realised unfortunately that my new manager (my boss’s boss) was standing watching all this. Fortunately he thought it was hysterical to watch me sneaking up slow footstep by slow footstep, especially since from his point of view the bird was obscured and he thought I was creeping up on a tree.
‘I’m actually working very hard!’ I shouted over to him and he seemed to accept it.
Here is what the woodpecker will look like as an adult, you can see that proud pose already forming in the photo I took:
From Garden Bird
inkbiotic 
During the winter we had at least one woodpecker climbing on our bird table.
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Did I tell you about the time I threw my slipper at what I thought was a cat attacking a bird in the garden, only to see it was a peregrine falcon. Don’t worry, I missed.
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Amazing to see though, not what you expect in your garden at all!
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What a beautiful thing. I hope the Jays left it alone.
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Oh yes, they were having a hop around nearby, but there was no tension.
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Purdy bird…
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And fluffy! 🙂
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The boss thought you were creeping up on a tree? Now that’s funny! So… his name is Woody? Nice. You really are One With Nature. I love how you own the nickname. See what I did there? Have a good weekend! 😊
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😀 My boss is apparently not familiar with how trees work (or TOO familiar) You have a great weekend too!
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I love Jays.
I like woodpeckers but don’t get green woodpeckers where I am. I get greater spotted woodpeckers and lesser spotted woodpeckers though.
As for Jays though, I love Jays.
Like I LOVE Jays. I’m obsessed with Jays to a degree that could be seen as pathological, unhealthy. I have wild Jay that I feed peanuts too, we have a sort of bond. He’s not scared of me when I open my window and lets me throw out some nuts for him. Though he hasn’t be around much this week which has me worried I’ve lost him. Though I definitely heard A Jay hanging around yesterday. I’m hoping it’s just that he’s got lots of food sources right now and doesn’t need my peanuts and will be back.
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I let sunflowers grow where ever they pop up in the garden. That way the blue jays have a hay day well into the winter.
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I love the idea of a garden where sunflowers just pop up. Such dramatic flowers for such pretty birds!
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Jays are beautiful, probably one of the most striking birds in London. They’re not friendly at all though, so your connection is rare and impressive. Hopefully he’s just been super-busy and he’ll be back next week. And I’m sure there’ll be other birds who’ve been waiting to get peanuts too.
I have a friend who’s spent his quarantined time getting to know the birds (and squirrels) in his street. I’ve never seen him so happy.
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The wee little birdy already looks the role. Where we live, I have never spotted a woodpecker. This one’s cute. Good that you are getting practice creeping up on trees, since you are breeding aliens seeds at home. You might want to keep a hatchet handy as well. 😋😋😋
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I’ll bring one home from work 😉
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😁
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Lovely pics, Petra – just the sort of distraction I love (and get caught out doing) when I’m working. Thanks for sharing. We used to have green and greater spotted woodpeckers at our last home but, even though surrounded by trees here, seldom hear – and never see – them. Both beautiful species. Sad to report, a kestrel dived into the shrubs outside our window and made off with a blackbird. I was deeply depressed all day. And yes, I know about Nature red in – beak – and claw – but we’ve watched this batch of blackbirds since they fledged in the Spring.
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I’m sorry about your blackbird, I know how easy it is to get attached to animals in nature. I always do and then forget how precarious and short lived it is. Humans have such an easy life on the whole!
I’m glad you enjoyed the blog 🙂
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