Bird track - not seen this one before

[nigelp]

Found this bird track. Excited because I haven’t seen one in the ‘flesh’ before. I’m quite certain of which species it is, can any one hazard a guess (or maybe confirm).

 

[William_Montgomery]

Nice track. Is it an owl?

 

[Silverclaws2]

Oomigoolie bird? No can't be it seems it has legs.

 

[Toddy]

Is it a coot ?

My garden runs alongside a nature walk and a burn, and in Winter we get visitors to the bird feeder that we don't otherwise see. The marks in the snow from a coot looked a bit like those. The moorhen is a bit more like the arrow stamp on govt metalwork.

 

[nigelp]

Nice track. Is it an owl?

That’s what I thought initially but it’s not robust enough. I’m now thinking it’s Green Woodpecker.

 

[nigelp]

Is it a coot ?

My garden runs alongside a nature walk and a burn, and in Winter we get visitors to the bird feeder that we don't otherwise see. The marks in the snow from a coot looked a bit like those. The moorhen is a bit more like the arrow stamp on govt metalwork.

Moorhen and coot are very similar. Except coot toes are slightly curved and fringed with webbing.

 

[William_Montgomery]

That’s what I thought initially but it’s not robust enough. I’m now thinking it’s Green Woodpecker.

Never seen a zygo track before, really nice find.

 

[nigelp]

Never seen a zygo track before, really nice find.

Me neither. Owl tracks are more even like an x and robust. That’s what thought initially but had a good look in my book…


https://www.waterstones.com/book/bird-tracks/john-rhyder/david-wege/9781803991702

 

[nigelp]

Never seen a zygo track before, really nice find.

Wet weather is what we need! More mud.

 

[Toddy]

I've never seen a green woodpecker
We have a lot of the greater spotted ones about; they visit the garden daily.



Coot


Moorhen

 

[Tengu]

Parrot?

 

[nigelp]

Parrot?

Same foot type - Zygodactyl but it was a Green Woodpecker.

 

[Nice65]

Strange they’re not more common in Dorset Nigel, I’m not far off in W. Sussex and I hear or see them almost every day. So much so that it’s been on my mind to Google and find out if they might even be becoming a problem with the rapid population rise.

 

[nigelp]

The tracks themselves I have never seen, rather than the birds. I have one that visits the garden regularly.

I took the photo in woods near Harting. Hampshire or just over the border from Sussex. I live in New Forest and see/hear lots of Green woodpecker and have seen their sign - pecked rotten logs, grubbed up moss and ants nests turned over all across the south.