I was coming back to the beginning of the Yeovil Country Park Riverside Walk with the dogs this morning when I heard a loud tweeting sound near the old dead tree that the Woodpeckers have nested in in the past. Ooh I thought, maybe it’s a young one, and sure enough, there was a Woodpecker at the hole, looking like it was about to feed its young…
But for some reason there was a pair of smaller birds mobbing it, and in fact it was them making the noise. I couldn’t tell what they were at first, but then one landed on a nearby trunk…
Ah, I thought, maybe all is not as it seems. It rather looked like the Nuthatches had taken over the nesting hole, and the Woodpecker was raiding it, as sadly they often do. The Nuthatches were certainly trying their hardest to get it away from the hole…
Undeterred however, the Woodpecker investigated the hole…
…then emerged, fortunately without any prey, to the relief of the helpless Nuthatch watching.
But the Nuthatches hadn’t given up, and had one last push to get rid of the intruder…
…and finally they drove it away.
So, a happy ending – this time…
Alastair Swinnerton 