Although you may not have thought so last week - spring is coming fast. The next few weeks are undoubtedly to best time of year to locate displaying and territorial Lesser Spoted Woodpeckers. Birds will now be drumming and calling and can often be seen chasing each other through the canopy. It will be a few weeks before they select a nest site but now is certainly the best time to establish the presence of territorial birds.
Please keep records of any birds seen in March and April as these will be in their breeding territories. Ultimately, we would like to hear about any nests that are found so we can collect good data on breeding success but this year we are also trying to build a picture of known territories. It seems that Lesser Spots persist at the same sites from year to year so by confirming their presence each year we have the makings of a monitoring scheme.
So please let us know about any territories you find now. Please send us (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) the name of the site, the grid reference, date, what you saw (male, female, pair) and what they were doing (drumming, displaying, feeding). We will treat the site information you send us as confidential and will only ever publish a county level summary.
Lesser Spot drumming is softer and longer than Great Spot and their call is a sharp 'ki-ki-ki' a bit like a Kestrel. More information here.
Later in the spring we will also be keen to hear about any nests or excavating birds that you find.
Contact Ken and Linda Smith at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Twitter @lesserspotnet
