THE return of the woodpecker to its rightful place in Irish forests is complete. Here it is this week in a Poleglass garden – a young bird on a feeder eating sunflower hearts.
Dúlra has yet to see one for himself, but it’s proof that they are breeding in Colin Glen in the heart of West Belfast. The great spotted woodpecker – mórchreagaire breac in Irish – was one of three species of woodpecker that bred here until the great forests were felled. The great spotted was the last to leave, still being recorded in the early 1800s. In the fabulous book Ireland’s Lost Birds, published in 1999, Gordon D’Arcy writes: “The possibility of the great spotted woodpecker repopulating the increasingly available woodlands increases with every year.” Just over 20 years later, that possibility has turned into a sweeping invasion.
Dúlra wasn’t aware of their taste for sunflower hearts, he thought they might only be tempted into gardens by peanut feeders. Sunflower hearts have become the go-to bird food and it’s easy to see why with so many birds gobbling them down.
But this young Poleglass woodpecker isn’t as harmless and friendly as it might appear to us. The reader managed to get a remarkable photograph which demonstrates how other birds no longer have any understanding of this new arrival and how it fits into the food chain.
While the woodpecker was on the feeder, a goldfinch landed on it, no surprise as goldfinches love sunflower hearts. Surely there was enough to share? But the woodpecker wanted all the seeds for itself, and with that famous beak that can bore through hard wood, it’s not to be trifled with.
It suddenly attacked the much smaller goldfinch, ripping off one of its wings, as you can see in the picture. The wee bird managed to escape, how or where to with such a devastating injury we don’t know. But it’s about as likely to be able to fly as a one-winged plane and its fate is surely sealed.
NATURE IN THE RAW: The stricken goldfinch flees leaving its wing in the woodpecker's beak
The woodpecker will be as unfamiliar to goldfinches as it is to us, but it’s clearly not taking long in re-establishing its place in the Irish food chain.
Great news for birdwatchers, if not for goldfinches.
• It was fantastic to pick up the first box of veg from urban farmers Roisin Malone and Conor Langan at their North Belfast home this week, although it already seems unlikely that there’ll be any strawberries in the weekly offering.
That’s because one-year-old Bamba is eating them all! That’s her in the background of the picture with a strawberry in her hand – as soon as a red one appears in the patch behind her, she picks it and scoffs it. You’ve heard the saying ‘Like a kid in a sweetie shop’? Well, wee Bamba in her vegetable garden on the Deerpark Road is as happy as a kid in a strawberry patch.
FAMILY AFFAIR: Banba enjoys her strawberries as mum and dad Roisin and Conor look on
The first box of veg had scallions, kale, chard, broad beans, different types of lettuce, a big bulb of juicy garlic and potatoes that were truly melt-in-the-mouth magnificent. The couple have their order book full with customers getting a £15 box every week until the autumn. The veg will change as different plants ripen – but wee Banba might have something to say about that!
• If many areas of Belfast are depleted of swifts, Gransha is not one of them. Reader Caoimhín Rosato says each May there’s a cacophony of squealing in the air as lots of them arrive back from migration to nest in homes in the area. “Last night when I was out for a dander, 20 or 40 of them were flying around the sky,” he said.
It’s great their numbers are so solid there – Dúlra just needs to coax a pair or two into his own estate!
