A woodpecker in Deptford

[helenraven]

This morning's walk to the river took me past a small park in Deptford, a block from the river. There were bursts of hammering sounds from the direction of the park, and I stopped and scanned the trees, hoping to see a woodpecker, but suspecting I was mistaken, because I've never come across signs of woodpeckers in my part of London before. There

Comments

[gilda_elise]

We get woodpeckers, both the large, red-headed ones and the small black-and-white striped ones. It's fun to watch the small ones as they work their way up a tree trunk, looking, I assume, for bugs.

[helenraven]

Now I know the woodpecker is in the park, I will be dropping in much more often - because it was indeed fun to see it working its way up. And so much noise from such a small bird!

[slb44]

Before they tore down the orchard behind my house we used to have tonnes of wood peckers in the neighbourhood. They'd wake me up in the morning. Now we hardly ever see or hear them which makes me sad. The Bluejays and the Cardinals have taken over the morning wake up.

[byslantedlight]

How very cool! When I was in Cambs. there were woodpeckers around, and I still remember that sense of amazement when I realised what it was I was hearing, and then when I actually spotted one. *g*

I drove under two murmurations of starlings on Sunday afternoon - they were so low that I was envisaging birdstrike on a tragic scale, but both times they swooped and swirled in their dark cloud just above the height of the cars. A few weeks ago I actually pulled over to watch some distant murmurations - then one flew over my head from behind, and I only realised they'd done it because I could hear the wind against their wings in a sort of peaceful shhhhhh.

[helenraven]

How lovely, that encounter with the starlings. I used to see them on the marshes when I lived in Stoke Newington - I wonder whereabouts in south London they congregate.

[helenraven]

Having bluejays and cardinals isn't too shabby, but woodpeckers do have an extra level of interest. [And make a sound quite like a traditional alarm clock.]