Having a new entry for the garden bird list is always something of a red letter day. With a modest garden, set amid terraced houses, our list is correspondingly small, but additions are all the more enthusiastically celebrated, feeling somewhat 'hard won'. This morning a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker graced us with its presence, ensuring that Dendrocopos major makes the inventory. A brief visit to the nut feeder before it was disturbed by a Wood Pigeon. A bittersweet moment personally however, as I was off on an early train by the time it arrived, having to share the jubilation by text.
This splendid bird follows hard on the tails of Long-Tailed Tit, several passing through the garden last month. What next? Happily, I have no idea - the uncertainty fueling the anticipation... For now I'd settle for a repeat visit from the woodpecker. As long as I'm there to see it this time...