The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We are rapidly getting to the time of year when Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are most commonly reported. As with last year, we would request that all reports of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are sent direct to the county bird recorders and details do not appear on public forums.

The following has been provided by Ken Smith...

In most areas the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is in serious decline and for most birders it is quite a challenge even to get it on their year list. The reasons for the decline are not known for sure but work by the RSPB a few years ago suggested low breeding success was a possible factor. It would be great to be able to compare the results of the RSPB work with those from the BTO nest records to see whether low breeding success is a general problem but over the last few years the numbers of nest records for this species have fallen to such low numbers that this is not possible.

Lesser Spots can be found nesting in any woodland but seem to be more abundant in well wooded areas and woods with high levels of dead wood. For example wet woodlands along river valleys.

It is obviously difficult to find Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests but we think that some found as part of normal birdwatching may be going unreported to the Nest Record Scheme. The usual rule for submitting a nest record is that the contents of the nest must be known on at least one visit. For woodpeckers in general and Lesser Spotted in particular it is usually not possible to view the nest contents without specialist video viewers. However a great deal can be learned about the timing of breeding and likelihood of success from the behaviour of the adults at the nest. By simply recording adult behaviour over a series of visits you can contribute to our knowledge of this species. Below I provide notes to help interpret the stages of breeding from the behaviour of the adults. Although having records of nest from the beginning of excavation through to fledging or nest failure provide the most information, monitoring of nests found with chicks will be useful as most of the nest failures occur at chick stage and the overall timing can be determined from the fledging date.

The value of these observations could be increased considerably if the contents were known, particularly the numbers of large young that are likely to fledge. As a pilot in 2015 a few of us who own the necessary video equipment and poles to inspect Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests are offering a flying squad nest inspection service. If you have an active nest with adults feeding young contact me and provided I think the nest is likely to be accessible i will arrange for one of us to come and inspect the contents.

Ken Smith

The stages of a lesser spotted woodpecker nest.

• During excavation birds will be seen excavating a cavity but only when they are deep inside emerging head first to throw out woodchips is the cavity anywhere near complete. Lesser Spots always make a new cavity each year. Birds often try an excavation but move on elsewhere before completing a cavity. This may be an important aspect of breeding so please record such failed cavities.

• During laying and incubation the birds become very secretive and only change over every two hours or so - at this stage it is easy to assume the nest is no longer active. It is worth being patient and waiting to confirm that the nest is still active if you have the time available, or return regularly to increase the chance of detecting activity.

• During chick rearing the young are fed every 5-10 minutes and their age can be worked out from the adult behaviour. For the first week after hatching the young are always brooded by one of the adults so there is a changeover every time the young are fed. The young are usually fed inside the cavity until their last week when they can be fed at the nest hole with the adults only going in occasionally. For their last 2-3 days in the nest the young can be quite noisy making insistent begging calls (but not always) and can often be seen looking out of the nest hole waiting to be fed.

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

I've heard of one nest that's already being excavated, so keep your eyes peeled.

Conservation scientist, Ken Smith's contact details below if you'd be able to pass on active nest details to;

ken.smith910@ntlworld.com

Cheers,

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk