Clever Mrs Woody

I've met so many many lovely dogs on visits to nature reserves but I've never taken one to a reserve myself. Jazzy dog and all our previous German Shepherds were family dogs but stayed at home to look after the premises when we went out.

Ollie dog is well travelled, having been shown in Germany, so I decided to take her with me to Amwell Nature Reserve to try to get an image of the great spotted woodpecker that has been photographed at its nest in a tall, bleached, dead tree.

We met a trio of young hard lads tinkering with their bikes and cars on the track that leads to the railway line. She went up to them and greeted them politely and they were very kind to her.

Once we got to the dead tree we waited on the path for the woodpecker to appear. I could hear the nestlings calling. A woman with a dog saw us, turned on her heel and retraced her steps away from us. Two women approached, it seemed with trepidation and I explained that Ollie is very gentle. She was so nice with them and they were smitten. The four us saw the bird arrive, spot us and retreat. The women left and it came back. The clever bird landed on the opposite side of the tree to its nest which got me jumping around to get a shot. If I had been on my own I'd have hung around hoping for better. I've added an image to extras of the female taking out the rubbish Another dog owner saw us and quickly walked the other way. :(

I'd got my woodpecker shot and Ollie had been a very good girl so I decided to return home without finding out how she would be with other dogs.