Fathers’ Day

Great Spotted Woodpeckers

Is it my fancy, or does the above image resemble the shape of a heart?

It is that of a father and I like to think son, Great Spotted Woodpecker, clinging to the leg of my bird table.

I ask, because this image is very special to me, as I had taken it on Fathers’ Day in 2010.

My father had died five years previously and naturally I had been remembering him this day, as well as today.

Both sexes of young woodpeckers start out with red heads, but as they age, the male’s shock of colour recedes to a red band at the nape of the neck, whereas the female loses the red altogether.

As for the pond, the vegetation is thriving. The iris has bloomed a second time. The ‘wrigglers’ keep wriggling.

I saw a dark coloured pond snail, the size of a pea, yesterday. I wasn’t able to take any meaningful photo to show you. However they grow quickly and should be the size of a walnut in a year or so. It must have travelled to the pond amongst our plant purchases as in previous cases.

Here’s to all fathers.🍻