Attacks from a woodpecker and a cat!

Late this morning there were two attacks on the birdbox: one by a great spotted woodpecker and one by a cat.

The camera was not recording when the woodpecker attack started so the first part is missing in the video. The Female was on the nest and then a woodpecker appears at the entrance. She starts attacking it and manages to fly out of the box.

On the video you can only see a short part of the attack and the blue tit flying out. After that you can’t see a thing but you can hear the woodpecker pecking around the opening of the box. Fortunately there is a metal plate so no chance for her (it was a female) to get in.

Attack by a great spotted woodpecker, 7 May 2012 11:35am

Then just 12 minutes later there was an attack by a cat. The cat had climbed into the tree and was sitting on the roof of the box, putting his leg through the opening. At that time there was no bird in the box but the male and the female blue tit were both close by and sounding the alarm.

Cat "fishing" through the opening, 7 May 2012 11:47am

The box is designed such that a cat can never put his leg in far enough to actually grab a bird, but do the birds know this? The female bird seemed really upset and even when I write this more than two hours later I still see her checking the box all the time, sometimes going inside, but she hasn’t continued incubating so far….

Edit: around 2:40pm (about 3 hours after the attacks) she finally appears relaxed again and is back on the nest.