RAVENS NESTING IN OUR WOOD

 I've noticed over the last few weeks that the Raven's have been hanging around near my home area often sitting on a telegraph post near the house and circling over the woods adjacent to my home often calling very loudly and quite frequently but never going far. I'm sure they're nesting somewhere near by and as it is now April and Raven's are habitually very early nesters I should imagine if they are breeding here they should have chicks in the nest by now.

raven

As I'm still struggling after my knee operation I kindly asked the wife to go into the woods to see if she could locate the nest. When she came back she confirmed my suspicions with this photo of the Ravens huge nest that they had built in a large tree in the wood.

ravens nest

My wife Tina also confirmed that one of the birds had come off the nest as she walked passed.

I've also noticed that there's no crows nesting nearby this year so I asked the question to my nesting guru and good mate Stephen Carter who told me that Raven's will not tolerate any other corvids near it's nesting site. Good news for us as we've had Carrion Crows pecking on our windows and patio doors at their reflection over the last couple of years making a hell of a racket and a mess also it can be very annoying especially at 5am in the morning.

Here's a short clip and another still picture of a Raven on the lampost near our home.

Great to have these huge corvids nesting so close to my home and if it keeps the Carrion crows from bashing their beaks against our windows they're very welcome.

NESTING WOODPECKERS

 I've been out of birding action for the last couple of months due to a knee replacement operation. So looking out over to the small wood adjacent to my home I was delighted to see a Green Woodpecker, I set my scope up on our patio area and soon realised it was hacking out a nesting chamber. What a stroke of luck as I could observe the birds coming and going as they slowly dig the nest hole without having to leave my garden or disturb the birds brilliant.

Below is a picture of the male at the nest hole.

 Here's a pic of the tree the Woodpeckers have decided to use for their nest site.

I've drawn a circle around the nest hole so you can see where it's located.

Here's some video of the bird outside the nest hole.

And digging the nest chamber out on a dreary day.

Here's another video of the male on the other side of the tree perhaps he was alerted to some danger and moved away from the nest hole.

 Another short clip of the male giving way to the female so she can inspect his hard work. I did get the wife to bend back the branch that was in front of the hole so I could see them better from the house.

Fantastic to have them so close and hopefully as my knee slowly gets better I might be lucky enough to get some pictures of the young with their heads sticking out of the nest hole, that would be brilliant, lets hope they're successful.

All footage was taken with my Swarovski scope and iPhone 14, the picture of the woodpecker was a frame grab from one of the clips.