Woodpecker and weasel: This is what the photographer has to say about the incredible picture
‘The woodpecker left with its life, the weasel disappeared hungry’
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Your support makes all the difference.You've almost certainly seen this crop up in your Twitter feed more than once.
It's a picture of a weasel riding a woodpecker. And it's pretty incredible.
This is what the amateur photographer who took it, Martin Le-May, has to say about it:
"It was a sunny afternoon, with the occasional cloud making the Hornchurch Country Park seem that grey-brown dull winter colour even though it was the 2 March.
My wife, Ann, and I had gone for a walk. I had hoped that she might see a green woodpecker as she has not really seen one before.
"As we walked we heard a distressed squawking and I saw that flash of green. So, hurriedly, I pointed out to Ann the bird and it settled into the grass behind a couple of small silver birch trees. Both of us trained our binoculars and it occurred that the woodpecker was unnaturally hopping about like it was treading on a hot surface. Lots of wing flapping showing that gloriously yellow/white colour interspersed with the flash of red head feathers. Just after I switched from my binoculars to my camera the bird flew across us and slightly in our direction; suddenly it was obvious it had a small mammal on its back and this was a struggle for life.
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