A happy Easter surprise...

Happy Easter everyone...
We had a rather nice surprise yesterday... after seven years of feeding the birds here.... a male Great Spotted Woodpecker [Dendrocopos major) Pic Épieche discovered, after around twenty minutes of hesitation and failed attempts.... how to use the bird feeders... well, the fatball feeder.
And he was back this morning... rather a lovely sight... and very interesting to see how delicately it feeds. But I suppose that is down to not having to chisel its way to the grub!

So, here's a picture post.... with captions to tell the story as events unfolded....

I suddenly saw him arrive... they never usually come this close...

He then moved even closer to the feeding station....

Then he moved up onto the feeder....
you can clearly see the red patch at the rear of his cap...
that clearly shows he's a he!
Females have no red on the head.

He hopped closer to the fatball feeder...
watching what the female sparrow was doing.

He hopped all around the feeder, studying it....
and watching what the sparrows were doing....

He made an attempt to reach the feeder, but he branch...
well, twig actually....
was too thin and he lost his balance!!

He let go and flew to the other end...
he was a little shocked I think and raised his crest!

He then hopped back and forth along the main feeder branches...
he spent quite a while doing this....
when, suddenly everything seemed to click....

And he was there....
and stayed for quite a while...
and came back twice today!!

This is a cropped area from the previous shot...
you can very clearly see the long, thin tongue that woodpeckers have...

So a rather nice Easter weekend treat... even if I was taking photos through the double-glazed kitchen window.... a today, a female has also been seen closer to the house than normally... spotted by Pauline that one....
other bird news, we think we must have robins this year... there are two still around and seem happy in each other's company... so probably a pair.
This year's dominant male Black Redstart is one of last years brood and still looks like a juvenile/female but with a noticeably darker face.
The male Stonechat is not impressed and keeps chasing him!!

Get off my cherries, you little beggars!

Outside our living room window is a cherry tree. It's been there for many years - planted by Richard Décharte's father - and the best view into its depths is from the guest room window. In winter we hang bird feeders in it. In spring it is a mound of blossom. We even provide a fluff dispenser - cat fur combings, dry moss and hemp wool - for them to line their dear little nests with and keep their babies warm. In June - it's every bird for himself. And the babies in particular.

This is what they are after:

Peck in place or carry out

The sweet cherry (cerise) is a cultivar of the wild cherry prunus avium cerisier sauvage, cerisier des oiseaux or merisier, sometimes hybridised with other species in the genus Prunus, mainly the sour cherry, prunus cerasus cerisier acide. We have no idea what variety this is, though going by its firm flesh it's probably some kind of bigarreau.

It seemed that all I had to do was point the camera at the tree and click, and somewhere in the image would be at least one bird stuffing itself. The tree is too tall for us to reach the top branches, so the birds can have those, but I wish they'd leave the ones  lower down!

Daddy blackbird - he takes whole cherries

Adult male blackbird - cherries make your beak glow

Immature blackbird

Immature blackcap

Two immature blackcaps, and a number of half cherries! Some hail damage, too.

Daddy blackcap - looking a trifle worn - with good reason, now on his second brood

Spotted flycatcher (right) standing lookout with a house sparrow

Blue tit - he did it siiiiide...ways

Immature house sparrow I never done nuffin, sweet little fellow I am

Immature house sparrow - right, is anyone looking?

Immature house sparrow - OK, let's get stuck in
More hail damage to the leaves

Here was the big surprise

Immature greater spotted woodpecker. Now which one shall I have?

There were also great tits, jays, crows, no doubt the woodpigeons had a few ... and when the cherries were all gone they turned to the redcurrants and snaffled the lot. At least there are still some whitecurrants, they don't understand those. Yet.

A change of approach now we are here!

Date as for log entry.
Well, we are now in France and this website will become more frequently updated as we are here every day!!
It means that the remaining, originally chronological entries will be posted as and when... usually when they match the date being reported in real time.
We've been here a fortnight already and have seen a lot... without leaving the premises.
With our first lot of unpacking came the unexpected sight of a Purple Emperor butterfly... no, we didn't get a photo and we don't know if it was a Lesser Purple Emperor either [we were too overwhelmed at having such a creature on our hands to count the dots.... two on the front wings of the Purple and two on each pair in the Lesser according to the books.]
Then we were bombed by a female Stag Beetle... we were sitting outside, enjoying a late evening spot of calm [as you do] when we saw a large, at first slow moving, object rise from the sunflowers opposite... and head straight for us at an ever increasing speed... it buzzed just over our heads and used the warmth coming off the building to circle and rise into the Cherry Laurel... there are some beetles that were never meant to fly.
Later that week we saw a Lesser Stag Beetle [much smaller] for comparison [very convenient!}
And then for the past few days we've had a small family of Crossbills wrecking the tops of our Spruce trees... this in turn has brought in a host of other birds... including a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.... all feeding on the wrecked cones.
There will be more on the Crossbills later in the week when we've processed the pix.