FEEDING WOODPECKER
Green woodpeckers are oftener to be found feeding on the ground than in trees just now, for ant colonies are active in the heat and stream about grassy mounds like citizens in the rush hour. One green woodpecker that often used to perch in the old apple tree at the top of my garden and sometimes hammered a message on the near-by telegraph pole has taken to haunting a neighbour's garden, searching the rather long grass industriously. Being fonder of a mound or a place from which he can observe the comings and goings of potential enemies, he con- tinually pauses to shoot his neck up and take stock of things above the 'forest.' The ants are to be found all along the hillside, powdering the light soil in old rockeries as well as in the untidy grass and, since they are never finished moving pups for some reason known only to themselves, the woodpecker has a fine feast Without glasses one couldn't be sure what he is about, but under close observation that long, hinged tongue is seen to be in constant use, and ants are his favourite dish. Every now and again, just to reassure himself, old pickaxe head flips up into an elder and poses in true woodpecker fashion, but he wastes no time in returning to the banquet. Posing doesn't quell his appetite.
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