The Lincolnshire Bird Club

In 2000 I undertook a 1km based BBS for Forest Enterprise covering all the 23 squares that have parts of Laughton forest within them; in 2000 there were 12 Green Woodpecker territories and five pairs proven breeding a lower number than estimated due to the constraints of one person surveying such a large area -- repeating the survey in 2012 I have spent over 50 hours in the forest so far this spring walking within 100m of every part of the forest and not seen or heard a single Green Woodpecker; in the 2010 -2011 winter the snow fall there was exceptional with many branches broken off and trees falling over under the weight of snow while on the ground it was up to 3 feet deep for several weeks; So was this what has wiped out the Green Woodpeckers? have there been similar losses elsewhere in Lincs or is it a localised event. Are there still as many Green Woodpeckers around Market Rasen, Kirkby, or any of the other county strongholds? Although many of the clear fells that had small trees in 2000 are now unsuitable for ground feeding birds the heathland and sandy areas around the forest are still there.
Out of interest I have so far located 13 Willow Tit territories within the forest with one pair excavating for the last few days. With males singing on these calm days its a good time to locate Willow Tits before they go quiet later in the spring.

Have had at least three Green Woodpeckers at the same time at Kirkby this year and two at Whisby this afternoon.

Hugh

One at Donington on Bain when on a 7 mile circular walk on Saturday.

One at Swallow Vale on Sunday.

Roy

Regularly hear them at Fulbeck, Belton and Marston, probably more this year than previously.

David

The boulder clay soils of South West Lincolnshire have never been classic Green Woodpecker country, But, echoing David Morison, numbers have been increasing steadily for many years and they are now common in both woodland and more open countryside. No specific survey done but heard all over the place this Spring; nearly as common as Great Spotted which seemed to hit their peak a few years back.

Hugh Dorrington

I certainly agree with Hugh. Green Woodpeckers have definitely increased in the south Lincolnshire Fens and are now seen regularly in quite open country. They have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. (Hugh's obviously too modest to mention it is a regular garden bird for him and didn't mention the one we ringed in his garden this year!)

Alan

the increase in non classic habitats seems all the more surprising but maybe that is where they have more chance of survival in hard winters by having more food supplies to exploit? We could do with more surveys from the classic heathland sites to find out if they have declined at any other traditional sites.

green wood last autumn on open farmland north of tetney towards humberston only one i have had in this area, terry whalin

The comments on this thread may well have highlighted a significant habitat change for the species. I can endorse Graham's comments in that Green Woodpeckers have certainly declined on the Market Rasen Cover Sands incorporating heathland at Linwood Warren, the clearfell areas of Willingham Forest and the adjacent Market Rasen Golf Course. I have not recorded one since September 2011 but will now make a conscious effort to conduct a more thorought survey.

My qualitative impression around east lincs is that the spread continues and this spring they seem to be around in the usual places I have visited so far. Certainly no indication they have disappeared from anywhere.

I've tried to paste a table of the Green Woodpecker BBS data from BTO for the period 2000 to 2010 on here without success, the 2011 data is not published until summer 2012.

The pattern seems to be of a steady increase in range with 7 out of 48 1 km squares surveyed, occupied in 2000 (14.6%) increasing steaddily to 17 out of 64 (26.6%) in 2010.

Birds / 1 km square showing a fairly steady population density of around 1.7 for the last few years with no sign of a drop. Will be interesting to see if 2011 results suggest any change of the kind you mention. As I've mentioned before the bbs data on the BTO website is a wonderful resource. Sadly at the moment the data on there is for Lincolnshire and Humberside separately but the above data comes from a single Lincolnshire dataset, that Kate Risely at BTO created specially for us for use in the LBC 2010 bird report.