A Weasel Hitches A Ride On A Woodpecker

Photograph: Martin LeMay

Martin Le-May, amateur photographer My wife had seen a couple of woodpeckers in Hornchurch Country Park, and she fancied getting a better view of one. I knew a place where they hang out. We were walking along when I heard an odd noise in the grass – a woodpecker being attacked by something. I realised that if the bird took off it was going to fly straight towards me.


I picked up my camera, a Canon 70D, and started shooting. I took about eight pictures in total, and the whole thing lasted no longer than 10 seconds. They landed about 20 yards in front of us, and I remember thinking I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch a woodpecker be ripped to death in front of me.

But I think our presence was enough to put the weasel off. It ran away hungry and the bird flew off.

To be honest at first I was more excited about a picture I’d taken earlier, which I had thought was a fieldfare – a type of thrush. But when I got the pictures up on my computer and saw the weasel and woodpecker shot I called my wife who was making tea in the kitchen and said: “You should look at this. It’s pretty spectacular.”

I shared it with a small group of photographer friends and one of them asked to put it on Twitter. Within an hour it had been shared 5,000 times. By the next morning it had been seen by more than 1m people on BuzzFeed and there were reporters at my door.