Bird rescue

This morning i nearly ran over a bird that was sitting on a main road...oops. As i noticed it was still alive i stopped, and went back to pick it up before any one drove over it. And much to my surprise it was a male Woodpecker, finally i got to see a live one from close by, they are so beautiful :-) Just a pity it was wounded at the knee, and who knows what else was injured, and it was still dozy from whatever it flew in to :-(
So i went back to my van, and put it in a box and put my jacket over the top so it could stay relaxed in the dark(also i didn't want a woodpecker flying around my head whilst i was driving ;-) ).
Just my tough luck (and his) it was going to be a rather long working day, and i had no idea or wasn't any were near were i could drop it off, so he stayed with me all day, till i got home.

Always wanted to see one from up close, but never thought i'd ever get to see one from this close though :-))

Put him in a cage we got from the neighbour so i could have a proper look at it, and see if it had any other visible injuries. In the meantime phoned the vet. Tough luck, he was on holiday :-/
So as he was able to rest all day, we decided to try and set him free in the woods here, and see if he eventually would fly away.

off course i used the opportunity to take some quick shots :-) But he was hopping all over the place, so it wasn't easy, especially as the sun was already set, and it was getting dark and had to use the flash. He tried to fly, but that didn't seem to go well :-(

eventually he got into a small tree
:-) now i know why they are so hard to see, every time i moved to his side of the branch, it moved to the other side to hide :-)
yep, they are very shy birds to say the least.

But i got him eventually, or rather part of him :-)

Suddenly he tried to fly away, but he couldn't and fell down. So i had to try and catch him again, which wasn't easy among the thorny bushes and as it was getting dark, but i got him eventually :-)
As you can see, they aren't all that small, and the beak is rather sharp......... i sure didn't fancy a peck of it :-)

So we called the bird rescue centre, and explained what was what, and what we did, and then put him back in a box so it could calm down again, and get some more rest in the dark. And tomorrow, as i have to work, and can't get back in time to take him to the centre, they'll come and pick it up themselves (as it's an endangered species over here) and look after it, and when it's okay again, set it free :-))

Hope he'll soon recover and can be on his way again to find a lovely female he can start a family with :-)

As i see some of you would like to hear how he's recovering, I'll phone the centre in a few days, to see how he's doing, so i can keep you all informed about him.
:-)) I think he needs a name, any ideas anybody?.... besides woody, :-))