Green Woodpecker on the back lawn

Yesterday Janet and I were eating lunch when I suddenly realised we'd got a visitor on the back lawn. A green woodpecker was furiously pushing has beak into the lawn only thirty feet from us. We always have the binoculars close to hand and for the best part of twenty minutes we watched him (her?) pecking away quite oblivious to the noise of the school kids on the playing field next door.
Eventually it flew up and landed on the trunk of the Scots pine tree in the school playing field where we were able to see the fantastic markings on it's back and tail.

We see green woodpeckers on occasions in the garden but never for such a long time. A later inspection revealed, as I suspected, that we have a colony of ants in the middle of the lawn. Let's hope he comes back for second helpings!