00:07so hello good morning my friends today I decided I would come for a walk in this
00:18little forest here behind me in the hope of finding some signs of spring and and to find
00:30woodpeckers and no sooner have I gotten out of the car I can actually hear a woodpecker and I've
00:40just seen him fly from one tree to another I hope the microphone on this little camera can pick it
00:47up I think from the call it's a gray-headed woodpecker you can see the car is just there
00:59I've literally just gotten out of the car
01:14there he is okay he's in that's a different one actually there's one who's who's drumming
01:28and a different one that's calling okay let me put this camera down and see if I can set myself
01:37up
01:38bear with me
01:41so
02:08seems to have gone all quiet and I can't hear and now I have to drumming or calling
02:16where is he
02:23oh I see
02:27he's way at the top
02:56I've lost him again
03:20I can hear him still but I can't see him
03:32there's another one over there
03:39it's all gone quiet so I shall hang on here a second see if I do manage to spot him
03:44and see if I can get a little bit of video of him so bear with me
03:53okay so amazingly enough I haven't seen the woodpecker I haven't seen the woodpecker I haven't been able to spot
03:58him again but I have found a blue tip nest and the parent is going in and out of the
04:07nest
04:12it's a stunning little bird
04:18I'm guessing he's preparing the nest for his family
04:27because it's probably mid March still a bit early for them to have got eggs on the nest already but
04:37I could be wrong
05:03there's a lot of little birds in this sand of trees just here
05:08so I'm gonna see if I can get some video of them on this camera first and then I might
05:14try some stills as well
05:27okay so I managed to get a couple of seconds of footage of a greater spotted woodpecker drilling away
05:36although he's behind a whole bunch of branches and everything so I'm not sure how clean it is as an
05:41image
05:42and if even it's in focus because it's without and I need to get an EVF for this a viewfinder
05:50to make my life a little bit easier rather than trying to focus off the back screen
05:57but a really good start just having gotten out of the car so I could probably spend the whole day
06:03just in this stand of trees
06:09but because of that I won't
06:11so I'm gonna shelter the gear and carry on into the woods
06:18and hopefully this is a good sign of how things will be for the rest of the morning
06:52so yeah
06:53so yeah
07:08I just spotted a grey-headed woodpecker going into the hole and a tree on the other side then
07:21just spotted a grey-headed woodpecker going into the hole and a tree on the other side then
07:29oh
07:30so yeah
07:32yeah
07:32yeah
07:46That's going to be stunning.
08:27and there's a ton of holes as well in all the trees
08:35and that one looks fresh too so I might hang around here for a bit and see if there's anything
08:43using this hole in the tree here and see if the grey headed woodpeck comes back as well
09:04so the grey header didn't come back and whatever was using that hole didn't turn up either so
09:16I'm going to carry on down I think that's the grey headed again okay let me stop here and see
09:28if I can
09:29if I can spot him so difficult to spot in all this woodland it's one of the hardest things
09:39photographing birds in a woodland it's from all the jumble of branches and now that spring is arriving
09:55the leaves the trees are starting to leaf as well which is concealing the branches the birds are perched
10:03on even more but it's also what makes it so much fun firstly trying to spot the thing
10:18and then trying to get a clean shot of it okay let me pause this because there's only so much
10:25you can
10:26watch of me looking through binoculars and see if I can spot him
10:29and we'll get back here
10:33la la la la la
10:42la la la la
11:10Okay, so he's disappeared, he's the only cold in the last day.
11:17I'm going to carry on down the park and hopefully discover something else.
11:35So I walked all the way to the top of the woodland and along this beautiful little river and it's
11:47really quiet up at this end.
11:50There's a little bit of birds chirping, but other than that really, really quiet.
12:01So I've heard a lesser spotted woodpecker as well and I saw him flip between the trees
12:07but I couldn't get a shot of him.
12:10So I've decided I'm going to go back down to the beginning where most of the birds seem
12:21to have congregated and probably find a spot to sit and spend an hour or two just waiting
12:32and seeing what happens in front of me rather than me running around trying to stalk them.
12:44So you can see just how pretty it is here.
12:52Anyway, so I'll catch up with you in a little bit when I've found a spot to camp out in
13:00for
13:00a bit.
13:29I'll catch up with you in a little bit.
13:44Okay, so I've just come back to the place where I spotted the grey-headed woodpecker and I'm
13:54focused on the hole that he was coming in and out of in the hope that that is his nest
14:00and
14:01he might come back.
14:04In the meantime, I'm going to make myself a coffee.
14:09So, yeah, I mean, it's been a struggle really walking through the woods.
14:14There's been a lot of birds very high up in the trees, very concealed by the branches.
14:22It's a real mess of branches and the trees have started sprouting leaves now as well,
14:28which hasn't made it easy either.
14:31So I'm just going to hang here and see what might come into my field of view for an hour
14:38or so and then call it quits for the day.
14:43There's a large woodpecker of some kind drilling behind me that I can hear.
14:49And it's probably the grey-headed or one of the larger ones like the green or the grey-spotted
14:59one.
15:01So yeah, I'm just going to hang here and see what happens.
15:30So I left the spot where I was sitting having my coffee, and I'm just going to hang here.
15:35It's a little bit swampy because the grey-headed woodpecker didn't turn up.
15:39And I came down into the woods.
15:42It's a different part which is a little bit swampy.
15:44And I've suddenly been surrounded by a whole bunch of sheep and goats.
15:54And quite lovely actually.
16:00They're very cute but they're very stinky as well.
16:02They're very cute.
16:05They're just going to leave you in the middle of their own.
16:06They're very cute.
16:10But if you do, they have two balls of your booth.
16:12And they're pretty much себя.
16:15They're just going to see what's going on.
16:20They're pretty cute.
16:20Ha-ha.
16:21They're pretty cute.
16:22They're very cute.
16:23She's actually hanging out quite well.
16:25They're pretty cute.
16:27She's actually hanging out quite well.
16:28They're too cute.
16:30He's a wonderful.
16:31They're pretty cute.
16:32So after a really strong start, it's proven to be really difficult and there are so many
16:45trees with holes in them and fresh holes at that and evidence of woodpecker activity.
16:52And I've been hearing them and seeing them flit around from tree to tree, very high up, but
17:02I haven't been able to record any, really.
17:05Not properly, not as well as I would hope to capture them.
17:13So I might end up just going to where I first started by the roadside.
17:18It is lovely down here though in the middle of the woods, I can't get close to anything.
17:34After the sheep and goats came and went, it's all gone quiet again.
17:46With the exception of a few small songbirds.
18:05There must be dozens of woodpeckers though in this wood because there are so many trees
18:12with marks and fresh marks of that, that the woodpeckers have been digging into the trees.
18:27Okay, so I came back to the spot that I started out at.
18:33Even here there's not very much, it's gone really quiet now.
18:38So I think I'm going to call it there.
18:44It will probably be worth coming back in ten days, a couple of weeks' time.
18:49And hopefully spring will be in full swing and the birds will be a lot busier running around,
19:00looking for food, making nests, etc.
19:05So I shall try again in a couple of weeks.
19:11And it will probably be worth coming a lot earlier in the morning as well.
19:18Okay, so thanks for watching.
19:23I hope you enjoyed such as it is.
19:27It turned out to be not such a productive day, but that's the way of wildlife photography, bird photography.
19:36Anyway, so thanks for watching and hopefully I shall see you again very soon. Bye for now.
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