Caught in the act

[heleninwales]

I've been hearing the woodpecker drumming for a while now. I've never managed to work out where the sound was coming from. I thought the bird was in the very tall alder that's growing just beyond the bottom of our neighbours' garden, but even with the binoculars, I could never see the bird while it was drumming.

But this morning it saw it!

I've managed to cut a path through the brambles to the very bottom of our garden and this morning I went down there to cut back some of the goat willow branches that were overhanging our bottom fence. I need to get someone with a chain saw to cut them right back, but I have cut enough to enable me to have a bonfire down there so I can burn all the brambles I've been cutting down.

Anyway, as I was standing silently contemplating the intrusive willow, the woodpecker started drumming very loudly very close by. And I finally saw it! It wasn't high up in the tree, it was much lower down and it was drumming on a wooden bird box that our neighbours had put up on the tree trunk. That explains why it's so loud. The empty wooden box is acting as a resonator.

While I'm posting...

Further to my post about the author who really shouldn't have been reading her own story, today G and I started listening to a new novel. It's being read by the author, but she's doing a good job with it. So it can be done, as long as you don't start making up weird accents and stick to only doing accents that you're capable of doing properly.

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

I love woodpeckers - not seen one for years though.

[eve_prime]

Oh, I'm thinking how it would be so much easier to deal with all the blackberry vines all over my yard if it were permissible to build a bonfire to get rid of them once they've been cut. Having to cut them all so small that I can stuff them into the yard debris bin for pick-up is one of the most tiresome parts.

[sartorias]

I've seen woodpeckers while camping. Interesting birds, though I always wondered if birds get headaches.