Acoustic Monitoring for detection of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers
Article in British Birds
Our new paper just published in December's British Birds describes how we have successfully developed sound recording 'Bioacoustics' as a tool for the detection and monitoring of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. We have found Lesser Spots still present in woodlands where they have not been seen/heard for years. This is a very exciting -
Our full Lesser Spotted Woodpecker report for 2025 is here -thanks to the brilliant support of our network of volunteers, it has been a remarkably positive year. It includes how passive acoustic monitoring (sound recording) to detect LSW calls and drumming was amazingly successful at sites through Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset, detecting LSW at known sites but also at many sites where they had not been recorded before.
And how in the breeding season LesserSpotNet volunteers monitored 24 nests – the most in any year since we started the project in 2015. The average number of chicks fledged per nest was the highest ever.