In this fascinating series of photographs, a bird lover captured one great spotted woodpecker’s attempts to drill its way into a nesting box in his back garden.

The target was a brood of blue tit chicks waiting for their mother to fly back to the box with food.

The woodpecker tapped away at the entrance hole until it was big enough for him to squeeze his head in.

Just a little further and he would have been able to reach the chicks at the bottom – possibly even eating them – before taking over the nest.

Dave Jones, who took these pictures, knew it was time for him to swoop.

“It really looked like it was going to get through,” said Dave, 58, of Great Barr in the West Midlands.

SAFE AT LAST: With a metal plate in place, the woodpecker can't get to the chicks

He bought a metal nest box plate for £2.50 from an RSPB shop in Sandwell. These have 25-32mm entrance holes – perfect for blue tits or great tits, but much too small for aggressive woodpeckers. They are impervious to beaks too.

He then trained his camera on the box, so we are able to see the woodpecker peering inside in sheer frustration. In fact this “ferocious” bird was so determined it started to drill a new hole.

“After I put a plate on the front, it started attacking the side,” explained Dave.

“So I had to screw another metal sheet there as well.”

Woodpeckers regularly target the eggs or the young of all kinds of tits, nuthatches, house martins, tree creepers and sparrows.