 
Power 'peckerTuesday 28th March 2000
 
DAFFODILS bloom by the hedge at Lady Ings Farm. A young Rabbit sits amongst the seedling corn (barley?), close to its home in the hedgebank. These are scenes you'd associate with Easter, but that falls late this year - it is still more than three weeks away.
Like some cartoon woodpecker, it is sitting there clinging to the post, not drilling a hole, although it does seem to take a peck at a passing insect. There are more powerline poles than trees within a hundred yards of it and we have it with an old mungo and shoddy factory as a background. We tried, but
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From the towpath we hear the 'Yaffle!' of a Green Woodpecker close by. For once, it is useful for me to be 6ft 4 inches tall. If I stretch to look over the thorn-topped embankment I can see it perched on a powerline pole. Barbara can't even see the top of the pole. Moving on we find a place where we can scramble up under the thorn bushes.
failed, to see green woodpeckers in the wood last week. It's wonderful to see this striking bird in such an incongruous setting. A symbol of the wilder side of West Yorkshire.