The Great Spooted Woodpecker is one of my favourite birds and as well as having them visit my garden they nest in the local woods where I have perm to practice my Bushcraft.
I have been watching the 'peckers in those woods for well over a decade and most years I have been able to locate the nest and watch the saga of Nest-Feeding - Fledging ... quite often they re use trees and some are visible from my permanent camp site.
But this year things are a bit unusual...
Things started off quite normal - I could hear the Male "drumming" and then later the different sound of his pecking out a new nest hole and was able to locate the tree he was drilling into, confirming I had the right tree buy the copious "sawdust" from his work at the foot of the tree.
I soon spotted the new hole, it was in the same tree that he had used the previous year but much lower. This tree has numerous Woodpecker nest holes in it, some that had been used and some that had been rejected by the female in previous nesting seasons.
I thought all was well and I would be watching the Woodpeckers using the hole I had spotted - but then the bird started drilling another hole a little above and to one side of last years hole! Not only that but he kept looking at last years hole as well.
Last years hole shows claw marks from where something (probably Grey Squirrels) had attacked the hole (after the nestlings had flown) so did not look a prime site to my eyes ... but the female obviously liked it and that was where the eggs were laid.
All seemed to go well and eventually I was watching both adults ferrying in beak-fulls of food to the quite noisy nestlings that hatched ...until the end of last week...
Since then only the female has been seen doing the food runs and although there is only about a week to go until the nestlings leave the nest - they are already so big that the adult no longer goes into the nest to feed them but just pokes their head inside, but not yet so big as to poke their heads out of the nest to grab a meal - the time between feeds is between two and five minutes.
Not only does the female seem to be working very hard but I am worried the nestlings are not getting a decent feed.
Worse still, while I was watching the nest this morning a Grey Squirrel climbed into the tree and looked into the hole next to the active nest hole while the female was away - a flurry of wings and a flash of black and white feathers and she was back and the squirrel was away off out of that tree.
I am now worried that the underfed nestlings and weakened female may not stand up to further squirrel visits and the nest may fail this year... I will be keeping a close eye on that nest!
Male on the nest hole before the weekend
Female on nest hole - note the ragged top edge of the hole which could be caused by squirrels!
The active hole was made and used last year, the second hole made this year is above and to the right, half hidden in the shot by some leaves.
A clearer shot of the holes from my camp - the fist hole drilled this year is hidden by the leaves lower down the tree.
I have been watching the 'peckers in those woods for well over a decade and most years I have been able to locate the nest and watch the saga of Nest-Feeding - Fledging ... quite often they re use trees and some are visible from my permanent camp site.
But this year things are a bit unusual...
Things started off quite normal - I could hear the Male "drumming" and then later the different sound of his pecking out a new nest hole and was able to locate the tree he was drilling into, confirming I had the right tree buy the copious "sawdust" from his work at the foot of the tree.
I soon spotted the new hole, it was in the same tree that he had used the previous year but much lower. This tree has numerous Woodpecker nest holes in it, some that had been used and some that had been rejected by the female in previous nesting seasons.
I thought all was well and I would be watching the Woodpeckers using the hole I had spotted - but then the bird started drilling another hole a little above and to one side of last years hole! Not only that but he kept looking at last years hole as well.
Last years hole shows claw marks from where something (probably Grey Squirrels) had attacked the hole (after the nestlings had flown) so did not look a prime site to my eyes ... but the female obviously liked it and that was where the eggs were laid.
All seemed to go well and eventually I was watching both adults ferrying in beak-fulls of food to the quite noisy nestlings that hatched ...until the end of last week...
Since then only the female has been seen doing the food runs and although there is only about a week to go until the nestlings leave the nest - they are already so big that the adult no longer goes into the nest to feed them but just pokes their head inside, but not yet so big as to poke their heads out of the nest to grab a meal - the time between feeds is between two and five minutes.
Not only does the female seem to be working very hard but I am worried the nestlings are not getting a decent feed.
Worse still, while I was watching the nest this morning a Grey Squirrel climbed into the tree and looked into the hole next to the active nest hole while the female was away - a flurry of wings and a flash of black and white feathers and she was back and the squirrel was away off out of that tree.
I am now worried that the underfed nestlings and weakened female may not stand up to further squirrel visits and the nest may fail this year... I will be keeping a close eye on that nest!
Male on the nest hole before the weekend
Female on nest hole - note the ragged top edge of the hole which could be caused by squirrels!
The active hole was made and used last year, the second hole made this year is above and to the right, half hidden in the shot by some leaves.
A clearer shot of the holes from my camp - the fist hole drilled this year is hidden by the leaves lower down the tree.
