Woodpecker Attack
17th May 2010
Within a few seconds of being awoken, I guessed that the noise was from a greater spotted woodpecker. The noise appeared much closer than the nearest tree, so what was the woodpecker hammering at? To my surprise, it was the blue tit nesting box, which contained several chicks.
My first thought was that the parent blue tits would desert the nest. Although the birds would do the best they could, there is only so much disturbance they can take. However, it’s all part of what takes place in the natural world. Now it’s nice to get both birds in the garden, but there is room for both. A difficult call. A few woodpecker-like small taps on the window made the woodpecker stop and listen. Off it went.
Twenty minutes later it was back. This time the camera came out to record the behaviour. The woodpecker was now chiselling a vertical opening in the front of the nest box. A word of advice here, if you haven’t got a power tool to hand, get a woodpecker as it’s so much more efficient! It didn’t take long to remove a fair few chunks of wood. It then proceeded to pull out pieces of the nesting material. Surely the chicks would not survive this? The woodpecker had gone too far this time. How were the chicks coping? With no experiences other than being fed caterpillars and other insects, maybe the fear instinct wasn’t fully developed.
Greater spotted woodpecker chipping away at a blue tit nest box
Greater spotted woodpecker pulling out nesting material
The nest box was due for replacement either this year or next. No question now, as it’d been trashed. Running repairs were made, screwing a thick piece of wood onto the front of the nest box when both parent birds were away. It was worth a go to protect the chicks. Any bad weather would expose the chicks to wind and rain. Now it was just wait and see.
The good news is that the parents were not forced away. Their instinct to raise the chicks was strong. They continued to feed the chicks vigorously. Another week or so is all they require (looking back at records for previous year’s clutches).
Of course, at that point they really are on their own.
The wood chips and nesting material littering the ground (the hosepipe is an innocent bystander!)
The damage done to the nest box
All text and images © Keith Rowley 2010
My first thought was that the parent blue tits would desert the nest. Although the birds would do the best they could, there is only so much disturbance they can take. However, it’s all part of what takes place in the natural world. Now it’s nice to get both birds in the garden, but there is room for both. A difficult call. A few woodpecker-like small taps on the window made the woodpecker stop and listen. Off it went.
Twenty minutes later it was back. This time the camera came out to record the behaviour. The woodpecker was now chiselling a vertical opening in the front of the nest box. A word of advice here, if you haven’t got a power tool to hand, get a woodpecker as it’s so much more efficient! It didn’t take long to remove a fair few chunks of wood. It then proceeded to pull out pieces of the nesting material. Surely the chicks would not survive this? The woodpecker had gone too far this time. How were the chicks coping? With no experiences other than being fed caterpillars and other insects, maybe the fear instinct wasn’t fully developed.
Greater spotted woodpecker chipping away at a blue tit nest box
Greater spotted woodpecker pulling out nesting material
The nest box was due for replacement either this year or next. No question now, as it’d been trashed. Running repairs were made, screwing a thick piece of wood onto the front of the nest box when both parent birds were away. It was worth a go to protect the chicks. Any bad weather would expose the chicks to wind and rain. Now it was just wait and see.
The good news is that the parents were not forced away. Their instinct to raise the chicks was strong. They continued to feed the chicks vigorously. Another week or so is all they require (looking back at records for previous year’s clutches).
Of course, at that point they really are on their own.
The wood chips and nesting material littering the ground (the hosepipe is an innocent bystander!)
The damage done to the nest box
All text and images © Keith Rowley 2010
Comments
By Susie: We just had a box ripped open by a woodpecker. It enlarged the hole and seems to have killed the chicks and ripped the nest out. The parent birds are calling and searching this morning which is very upsetting. We found a dead bird on the ground. We have been watching them working at feeding for weeks and feel really distressed that we didnt know that could happen. We are going to reinforce the box this week in case they want to try again next year.