More Woodpeckers

A few more pics from Lithuania, in case you hadn't had enough in the last post. A brilliant experience, best ever views of even the common woodpeckers. Look at the trees - stripped bare. I think we had eleven woodpeckers feeding simultaeneously at one point. Awesome.

Middle Spotted Woodpecker. A month ago I had never even seen one of these, and was straining to see one in the very tops of some tall trees. These close views were an unbelievable treat. This one has a damaged lower mandible.

Rufous Turtle Woodpecker, Dendrocopus streptobalticensis. Note the weak bill, it is primarily a ground feeder. Relatively rare, even in Lithuania, we were lucky to get these views.

And everyone's favourite peanut-stealer, Great Spotted Woodpecker. Wish I got views like this in my garden. I may need to re-jig my feeders to create some better opportunities.

Lithuania, again - Woodpecker Heaven

Once we had faffed about getting the new car started (it didn't like the cold apparently...) we were on our way. A bit of birding in Estonia on the way back, including the wonderful Soomaa National Park where we had stonking views of a White-backed Woodpecker smashing the bejeezus out of a dead trunk, but the main draw awaited us back in Lithuania - Jos' feeding station north of Vilnius.




Before that I should probably mention Latvia, which so far hasn't really had a look in. We actually stopped in Latvia. It was dark, and all we did was eat a burger and have a coffee, but we did set foot in Latvia and very nice it was too. An excellent country tick, though the burger was on the thin side. Anyway, Latvia done, though Schumacher Bradnum got to visit it again, including a full tour of the back of a Latvian police car.

North of Vilnius the following day, we hit the feeders. Amazing, simply amazing. Birds are pretty few and far between in the Baltic states in mid-February, but here, with the promise of boundless quantities of free peanuts, seeminly every Woodpecker in Lithuania had gathered. A Grey-headed, three Middle Spotted, six Great Spotted, a White-backed, and two Black. I didn't see them all, but some rather good photo opportunities which I am pleased to be able to bore you with.