[Possum]

Last year we put up a nestbox on the wall outside our sitting room window. We bought it from the RSPB, so presumably it is well designed. Bluetits took up residence this year and have been diligently feeding their chicks for the last two or three weeks.


We also have greater spotted woodpeckers in the old orchard on the other side of the house. So we put a metal plate around the hole in the nestbox so the woodpecker couldn't enlarge the whole and steal the eggs. Half an hour ago I was happily watching the bluetits flying to and fro with food for the chicks when there was a flash of red and black. A male woodpecker swooped onto the nestbox, reached in, pulled out a chick and flew away with it! Such a shock.


 I know that nature can be raw in tooth and claw but to experience it with your morning coffee is something else!

[goosepimple]

Oh dear, yes I wouldn't have expected that.  GSW's are lovely to see, I expect it's all part of the food chain, however it does know that there's a supply there now.  We get Herons coming to our pond, lovely to look at but they treat the Mallards and sometimes our Muscovy ducklings like a McDonalds fly through.

[Fleecewife]

Apparently woodpeckers can peck through the walls of nest boxes to get to the chicks direct and tend to go for the bottom (of the box!).  They can hear them inside so just do what they would with a tree and make their way in.

I can imagine the shock of the box robbery when you were contentedly enjoying the natural world around you and the cute scene     I wonder how long a woodpeckers neck is at full stretch....not that I would want to stretch one personally 

[shygirl]

id rather see a woodpecker eat a chick than my cat, who is munching his way through alot of new chicks this year grrr

[Fleecewife]

id rather see a woodpecker eat a chick than my cat, who is munching his way through alot of new chicks this year grrr

It's awful that - you love your cat but you don't want it to kill the birds.  I'm catless now but when she was around and younger, mine specialised in picking off newly fledged blackbirds when they're still at the dozy stage and flap around in odd patches of vegetation.  Another of her specialities was to grab swallows from the air when they dive-bombed her - which they did because she grabbed them, usw.  She would also climb up inside bushes and raid nests.

All you can do is support the wildlife so there are as many young as possible and numbers are kept up.

[shygirl]

our swallows are safe  as they are in the attic above the garage this year but he climbs the trees to take other from the nests. he also catches voles on a daily basis, they are so cute too.

iv only seen a great spotted woodpecker once and that was in a bird hide. beautiful