Melincourt Waterfall and Woodpeckers

Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

 It is amazing what can be done with a little bit of effort. A friend of mine phoned from Birmingham to tell me about a tree stump in South Wales. It may surprise you, but I was interested. This tree stump was hosting a Greater Spotted Woodpecker nest. Given that these birds are suffering from a lack of good nesting trees - less standing dead wood around. Such information can be good for years of woodpecker broods. He was also aware that I was really keen to get photographs of this species, so he rubbed it in for a bit before giving me directions. After giving me the directions I did reflect that he might still not want me to find the nest; "..over the top of the water fall", "...ignore the broken bridge..", "..double back on yourself.." and "over the wonky bridge..". Once my son and myself had followed these directions we found the nest. This did come as bit of a surprise to me.

All birds try and make sure that their nests are well hidden and that while feeding they do not give undue attention to the nest location. This message does not seem to have rubbed off on the chicks as they could be heard cheeping from about ten meters away. The nest hole itself is in a dead oak stump at a height of only six feet, though, to be fair the stump is not that high. It is close to a public footpath that has a fair amount of traffic. It would not seem an ideal location, but needs must. It did mean that are reasonably easy to view and did not seem put off by our presence. I only got a few shots, missed a fantastic shot by a fraction of a second, but did get a chick photo. It looked almost ready to fledge, adult plumage clearly visible. The adults spent sometime calling before feeding, I assume to tempt them out. You would think they would be keen to get out as unlike many birds fecal matter is not removed from the nest........

Greater Spotted Woodpecker Chick

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker lays five to seven eggs usually in mid May. The fact that these woodpeckers are almost ready to fledge suggests an early start. Perhaps this was brought about by our warmest May on recold here in South Wales. While we were watching the parents brought back grubs and insects, this is usual spring woodpecker fare. In the late summer and autumn they tend to switch to berries, cones and nuts. We watched for about half an hour before heading off, I did not want to spook the birds. It all made me think - why can I not find where the Woodpeckers just up my lane are nesting?

On the way back we took in the rather beautiful Melincourt waterfall. This was worth the trip on its own. All in all a good afternoon out in the wilds.

Melincourt Waterfall