A Boxing Day showdown with an old foe

It was a cold, crisp Boxing Day morning. The sun hadn't yet risen above the horizon and all was dark and calm. One by one, cars rolled up into the field and dark figures came walking through the grassland with handheld torches lighting the way through the icy darkness. The bird ringing team was being assembled, Avengers style, for what was going to become one of the most monumental mornings of mist netting there had ever been.

The nets went up, hoisted high to catch winter thrushes and weaved through hedgerows to intersect flyways to give us the best possible chance of a high capture rate. The light came up and the birds started coming in. Each net round resulted in a about 5-10 birds at least and we finished on a total of 60. It wasn't the numbers that made this morning special however, it was one very special guest that paid us a visit.

You see, there has been one bird that's given us the run around ever since I've been out ringing and has been taunting my trainer for the whole ten years she's been ringing the site. It usually makes at least one appearance a morning and you usually hear it before you see it. As we're stood processing the birds or enjoying a drink, a laugh will come drifting across the grassland. Then comes the culprit, a flash of a lime green rump as it flies in its up and down fashion across the landscape. It will land somewhere just out of sight and then laugh again - "You can't catch me!".

And let me tell you, we've tried. We've tried nets in every position with tape lures underneath them but all that's ever achieved is bringing it closer to the net before it lets out a laugh (known as a Yaffle) and disappears off into the trees on the edge of the wood where we suspect they breed. I am, of course, talking about the Green Woodpecker.

We've had near misses too, where it's skipped up out the grass  from where its been eating ants and flew agonising close to the net. Even more traumatising was my trainer's experience of seeing it in the net, only for it to get out as she approached and fly away, laughing. It's been an on going duel, a battle for the ages, a showdown between human and bird that has seen the feathered side come out tops every single time.

But not this day.

My trainer returned from a net round with a beaming smile across her face. It had taken no tape luring, no chasing it into the net, it had just found its own way there. A gorgeous adult male - a final festive gift before we head into the New Year.

Luckily I had bought my camera with me too.

Now THAT'S a bird!

That rump - Phwwooaarrr

Things like the red line under the eye are things that go completely unnoticed until you get so close.

One of the best birds I've had the privileged to see in the hand.