This is a rather brief update about the woodpeckers in our silver poplar. The chicks – 4? 5? 6? – have been getting louder and more insistent daily. Dawn till dusk. *Whispers* it’s actually quite tiring after a while. I’ve been hoping to see one – and then to watch them fly. Today, I saw a chick for the first time. Tomorrow, I leave for ROLLING HARBOUR. I won’t see them fly this year, but I have taken some recordings over the last few days, and a few short videos. And a few photos. I haven’t got time to sort all that out now, so I’ll sign off with some photos from today… including the first sighting of a chick. It’s huge! The photos aren’t brilliant – low light on a drizzly day, a bit of distance necessary to avoid disturbing the birds. In the end I took some photographs from an upstairs window to get an angle into the nest.
The parents work flat out feeding their not-so-little babies. Mum…
Dad…
Both…
What goes in must come out… and both parents remove the pellets 
And finally, a chick appears. I suspect this is the loudest and largest, climbing onto its brothers and sisters to get first dibs at the insects ceaselessly brought to the nest. I was surprised to see such a vividly coloured head.
ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY 
I am so glad you managed to see one of the chicks. They seem to be doing well and the parents are working hard to feed them.
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I was so pleased to see a chick – even for the brief moments in which it snatched food from a parent. The parents must have been on the go fro dawn till dusk, though to be fair, they probably had plenty of insect fuel for themselves during the day…
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