Corona Wildlife Diary: Day Twenty-two

As the world shuts down around us the uplifting role that wildlife plays in our lives becomes more vital than ever. So, for my own sanity as much as anything, I’m going to keep a daily diary of what I find around my garden.  Photograph the wildlife you can see from your window or in your garden and post your pictures on the ‘Sussex Wildlife Trust Nature Table’ page.

Day Twenty-two

I went and stood out on the front lawn last night as I saw online that there was a pink moon on the rise. I felt a bit cheated because it wasn’t particularly pink. I later found out that it wasn’t meant to be pink and that name had apparently been bestowed upon it by Native Americans. I set up my telescope and had a good look at it and even managed to get a snap down the lens with my mobile phone.There didn't seem to be much going on up there though. Then again, the moon could probably say the same about us at the moment.

   
This morning I took a stroll around the house and it seems I wasn’t the only one who’s been out standing on the front lawn because I found this.

     

It’s a Green Woodpecker dropping. Our local Green Woodpecker has been yaffling away all the time recently – I can hear its laughing call every time I go out in the garden.

(You can hear a Green Woodpecker’s call here)

I love Green Woodpeckers – who doesn’t? - but I’m even more fascinated by their poo.

While our other two British woodpeckers (Great Spotted and Lesser Spotted) spend time in the trees looking for food the Green Woodpecker hunts at lawn level. They love eating ants and the way they catch them is incredible.

They hack open ant nests with that powerful bill of theirs and then they put their secret weapon into action. Hidden in their heads is an incredible tongue. It sort of starts at their nostrils and then curls right round their skull before popping out of their beak. Amazing. I’ve drawn this detailed anatomical picture of the woodpecker's muscular configuration to explain it all.

      

This tongue is sticky and really stretchy. Wait a minute, I’m sure if I search the internet I’ll find a picture that’ll show you just how weird and wonderful this tongue is. Ah, here you go.  

(A young Green Woodpecker sticking its tongue out. Amazing! Photo by Hedera.Baltica )    

They use this incredible weapon to lap up millions and millions of ants. So, there’s nothing I love more than finding some Green Woodpecker poo and having a rummage inside to see what the local woodpecker has been eating.  

Anyway, I’ve made this short film of me enjoying myself.  

             

And here, down the microscope, you can see the carnage that the woodpecker caused. I can't start to explain to you how fascinating I find this!  

           

So that’s my diary for today. I started off staring through a telescope at the moon as it breezed by 221,772 miles away. And I ended up staring down a microscope at a Green Woodpecker dropping. As I peered down at the tiny ant bodies stuffed inside I sort of drifted off a bit and it got me thinking about the universe and life and death and just what it all means.  

And then this morning I heard that one of America’s greatest songwriters died from Coronavirus yesterday.

I love John Prine so I stuck on his song ‘When I Get To Heaven’ (here) and, as I poked around in the ‘pecker poo, I let John Prine put everything into perspective.

 

“And I always will remember these words my daddy said

He said, "Buddy, when you're dead, you're a dead pecker-head"

I hope to prove him wrong, that is, when I get to heaven”

John Prine (1946-2020)