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Great spotted woodpecker nest May 2007
On 12 May 2007 while walking my dog in the woods beside the farm I discovered a Great spotted woodpecker's nest in a sweet chestnut tree.
As the nest was some 8 metres from the ground I knew the only way to get any decent pictures of the birds would be to mount a camera in a
nearby tree and operate it via a remote control cable. Having gained permission from the land owners I made a bracket to take a tripod
head and mounted it in a tree about 4 metres from the nest hole that evening. The next morning I returned to attach the camera, whenever
the adults returned to the nest I walked away so as to keep any disturbance to a minimum. Initially I removed the ladder from the tree but
once the woodpeckers became used to me being around I was able to leave it in place while I operated the camera from behind a tree.
Within a day or two the woodpeckers would happily visit the nest even when I was at the top of the ladder altering the camera position / settings.
Below are some pictures of the camera setup and the best of the photos I took over the 2 week period I was watching the nest site.
