This morning my attention was caught by some inept avian fluttering in our field. Two birds, medium size. A flash of red on the head, and a large beak: green woodpeckers.  The lack of vivid green ruled out adult males – this was a mother / fledgling education lesson in flying and self-sufficiency. By the time I had grabbed a camera from the house, they had moved further away. I had to creep up to the field fence so as not to scare them, and fire off some distance shots from a slightly awkward position (avoiding barbed wire was one issue). These are quite poor images, as photographs go. But the story is a good and rather sweet one…

Mum!

Uh huh….?

I’m hungry

Hurry up… hungryyyyyyy

Ok dear, worm coming up. You’ll have to learn to do this for yourself now

Still hungryyyyyy

Well here’s a nice bug. Last one. Then you are on your own. Forever.

Open wide…

Thanks mum. I’ll be fine now. I think.

Synchronised independence and self-reliance…