Vandals in the tree?

The rains have sort of started, though it’s hardly the El Nino that they’ve been talking about. We are desperately in need of plenty to fill the dams that serve the 4 million people living in Nairobi. With what we’ve had, the dust has finally settled on the mud road that I walk along to get from home to the office, and the grass is just starting to turn green again. There are reports however of the toll of the drought around the country on wildlife and domestic animals, and of course on people where crops have failed, and water has been so scarce for so long. Some plants, like grass, are amazingly resilient, springing back to life. It seems that the tree outside my flat, which has looked rather bare for a while now, isn’t faring so well. One sign of this has been woodpeckers in it, pecking away at the dead wood, presumably to get to whatever insects are living inside. I’ve heard their rhythmic tapping at various times over the last month, but on Saturday I was rewarded with a good sighting of them. A friend asked me what kind they are. Hmm, - hard to tell. Most of the 13 kinds of woodpeckers in my 'Birds of Kenya' book look pretty similar to these – small, speckled and with a red cap.
Several branches broke off the tree and fell down yesterday into the parking area, narrowly missing my car. Not sure if that would have happened anyway or if those woodpeckers were to blame!