Walnut thieves

[Walker570]

No not those tree rat bushy tails but something I would never expect until witnessed first hand at close quarters.  I was sat in one of my IBC hides this afternoon and saw a flash of wings directly infront about four yards away. I looked over the edge of the window and there was a black and white woodpecker starting to roll something over and I realised it was a walnut. When it was suitably angled to it's liking it began to hammer it with it's beak and quickly split it open. At that point it musy have noticed me because it flew off. It then dawned on me that the dozen or more shattered shells at the base of a Mountain ash next to the walnut tree where identical and I had see thi/these woodpeckers using the same crotch in the tree to peck at and assumed they where after grubs. Now I have seen nuthatches use a slot in a branch to hold a peanut whilst they pecked it to pieces but managing to break through a walnut shell is something else.     I believe they have broken open nuts on the floor then carried the bits up to the tree to extract the innards as there are also a number of empty half shells at it'sb base and here I was blaming the badgers..     learn something new in the countryside every day.

[Ultrastu]

I've never seen woodpeckers in my walnut tree .plenty of squirrels  though.