martin le-may — Love

This is a picture of a baby weasel riding a woodpecker. Unbelievable! Two animals defying odds (and gravity!) in an amazing public display of their friendship. ‘This woodpecker is giving his bestie baby weasel a ride on his back!’ we think immediately. ‘They’re going on an amazing, magical adventure together! ‘Hold on’, the woodpecker tells his nervous best friend who is apprehensive of flying for the first time. BFFs for life! Hooray!’

Except the baby weasel is trying to eat the woodpecker.

And we’re like:

Martin Le-May spoke to BuzzFeed News about capturing the moment in Essex, England in what he described as “the struggle for life.” In an email to BuzzFeed News he wrote,

“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.

The woodpecker landed in front of us and I feared the worst. I guess though our presence, maybe 25 meters away, momentarily distracted the weasel. The woodpecker seized the opportunity and flew up and away into some bushes away to our left. Quickly the bird gathered its self respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight.

The woodpecker left with its life. The weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry.”