Just popping out for lunch

For a couple of weeks we have had a pair of great spotted woodpeckers visiting our feeders on a regular and frequent basis.

Today I noticed that neither bird was flying in its customary direction, and after one foraging visit I managed to follow the male as it flew into a nearby silver birch where a youngster was patiently waiting to be fed. Unfortunately to get a large enough photo of both birds I had to use digital zoom so the image is not as good as I would have liked.

These woodpeckers show evidence of good parenting skills, providing their young with a varied diet of suet, worms and nuts. I hope they rear their brood successfully and eventually bring them into our garden to show them a well provisioned snack bar.