Woody Woodpecker and friends

Looking back at previous Outside the Back Doors, I can see that woodpeckers got a bit of a mention last spring but this month I thought I’d give them star billing.

When we first saw woodpeckers in our garden, we had to do two things. Firstly, stay very still and not move a muscle as the slightest twitch would see them vanish in a flash. Secondly, we had to pick up our bird book to double check what sort of bird we’d seen, such was our limited bird knowledge back then! With their smart black and white feathers and their flashes of red, we soon discovered that they were great spotted woodpeckers. However, in those early days, we would also very occasionally see a green woodpecker too, more of which later.

_{Great spotted woodpecker (c) John Malone}

Currently the great spotted woodpeckers are quite a key feature of our garden bird life as we have at least three regularly visiting the garden. With spring upon us, this is going to be interesting. Two are male birds and the third is a female. How do we know? Unlike some species, great spotted woodpeckers are easy to distinguish. If they are just black and white, then it’s a female but if they have bright scarlet feathers at the nape of the neck, then it’s a male. If it also has a scarlet cap, then it’s a juvenile. We’ve also noticed that the female is bigger than the males but that’s the sort of detail I think you only start to become aware of when you see them most days. Despite them being a regular visitor to our garden, it’s only really been since last autumn that we can rely on seeing one pretty much every hour of the day!

_{Male great spotted woodpecker (c) John Malone}

So if you can’t see a great spotted woodpecker, how might you know that they’re around? Unlike their green counterparts, the great spotted woodpecker doesn’t have a particularly distinctive call until you tune into it. Their “chook, chook” can potentially be mistaken for a blackbird until you also hear a blackbird warning call and then you realise they are quite different. They also have a very distinctive bouncing flight. If you’re out and about in woodland and you see a medium sized bird (they are bigger than a blackbird but not by much) almost bouncing through the air, then the chances are you’ve seen a great spotted woodpecker.

Of course now that we’re into spring, the other sound they are best known for is their drumming. I have been meaning to look up drumming for months but writing this article has finally made me do it. Apparently all woodpeckers drum but some like to drum more than others. That classic drumming sound that hopefully you might hear in our parks and gardens this spring is the great spotted woodpecker. Both male and females drum and they do it to claim territory. I’ve been hearing them drumming in our garden since early February and in Bushy Park since January. They do use their drumming action to get under the bark of trees to extract insects but that doesn’t make the drumming sound.

Woodpeckers of all sorts love insects but great spotted woodpeckers have been adapting to our love of feeding birds and are now regular visitors to bird feeders. This adaptability means that they are doing well and are not currently on any danger lists. It makes a change to read and write about wildlife that is doing ok. In our garden, they assert their authority over the peanut feeder and at times the seed feeder. Well no one is going to argue with that beak, are they?! Just spare a thought for the blue tits, great tits, sparrows and robins that are made to wait their turn!

_{King of the bird feeder! (c) John Malone}

I mentioned that we have occasionally seen green woodpeckers in our garden too. Unlike the great spotted, the green woodpecker is normally seen on the ground and that’s because the insects it prefers are down there. Green woodpeckers adore ants! And that is why I often see them when I’m volunteering in Bushy Park. It’s the perfect place for them. All those grassy tussocks that are so characteristic of the park are in fact anthills. So the green woodpeckers in the park think they are in seventh heaven! You always know if there is a green woodpecker around as they like to laugh at you. They are sometimes known as the ‘yaffle’, named after the cackling sound they make. They are definitely heard more than seen and I always get the feeling that they are having the last laugh,

Whilst I may have become used to seeing woodpeckers in our garden on a daily basis, it’s not something I am ever going to take for granted. Too much is changing in our environment and, just because a species seems to be safe one minute, doesn’t mean that we can take it for granted. When we first moved here 24 years ago, greenfinches were plentiful but the curse of diseases born by unclean bird feeders means that now they are a very rare sight indeed. I wouldn’t want that to be the fate of our woodpeckers. Long may they continue to thrive in our garden and surrounding woodland and parks.

Signs of Spring

What are the first signs of spring for you?  A snowdrop or daffodil maybe?  Or the fact that you don’t need to switch the lights on quite so early of an evening?  Or maybe it’s the supermarkets suddenly stocking up on eggs and lemon in preparation for Shove Tuesday which means that Lent is just around the corner and with it spring?

Jetfire daffodil outside the back door in 2021 (c) Elizabeth Malone

For me, one of the earliest signs is magpies nesting.  We have a pair that have been turning up reliably in early January for several years now, ready to take up their favourite nesting site in a neighbour’s conifer tree.  However, as I type this, all is not well.  I can see anything up to six or even seven magpies wheeling around the sky and jostling for position.  I can only conclude that some of their offspring have returned in the hopes of nesting near to their place of birth.  There is a huge amount of tail-flicking and aerobatic chasing going on.  I guess we won’t know who wins as one magpie tends to look rather like another!

Magpies mid-chase January 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone

How do I know that they are even nesting?  Well the answer to that is relatively simple.  They have a habit of stealing twigs from either our hawthorn tree or our elder tree.  Existing fallen twigs don’t seem to appeal.  Instead, they prefer to spend 10 or 15 minutes working away at a specific twig, eventually breaking it off and then flying away with it in the direction of their nesting site.  Sometimes they get too ambitious and choose one that’s too big to handle or there simply isn’t a clear pathway to fly out of the tree carrying it.  A great deal of effort for no gain!  Also, and I haven’t spotted them doing this yet but the evidence is clear, they like to pull out strands of our dead grasses from around the pond, presumably to create a softer lining  or to help weave the twigs together?  Either way, the area next to the pond is currently strewn with bits of dead grass that have been discarded.

Ready to select nesting material January 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone

Another hint that spring is on its way is the sound of a woodpecker drumming.  One morning in the second week of January, I heard this for the first time in 2023.  Great spotted woodpeckers are regulars in our garden.  I have no idea where they nest but they certainly rely on our seed and peanut feeders for sustenance.  Until last spring, I mainly seemed to see the male bird(s).  Males have bright red necks so can be easily distinguished from the females.  However, we now have a female who visits regularly and it’s interesting to see that she’s quite a bit bigger than her male counterpart.  Again, it’s the hawthorn tree that’s a bit of a favourite.  She has a regular routine that involves flying to the feeder and then up the tree.  She then works her way down the trunk, ‘Woody Woodpecker-like’ until she hops back on the feeder and repeats the whole process again.

Great spotted woodpecker on our feeder January 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone

Something else that always seeps slowly into my subconscious at this time of year is that birdsong is changing.  Throughout winter, the dominant sound has been the raucous ‘cheep cheep of the dozen or so sparrows that have become regular visitors (more about them in a future edition) and the occasional fluting song of our robins.  Now, as the days start to grow slightly longer, the tune is definitely beginning to change.  The relentless two-note ‘squeak – squeak’ of the great tit has emerged in the past couple of weeks.  During February you can start to listen out for blackbirds singing.  Apparently blackbirds are known to be one of the first birds to start singing for courtship in the spring.  I am assuming this must be our native British blackbirds who will be nesting here, whereas many of the blackbirds we see in our gardens in winter are actually Scandinavian visitors.

Great-tit queuing at our feeders January 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone

Meanwhile, I’m sure you’re expecting me to say the reappearance of hedgehogs from hibernation is another sign of spring but our spiky friends have been in the garden on most nights throughout winter.  It’s impossible to know how many individuals visit our garden but I am confident that we went into winter with three regulars.  On 8^th December our camera took footage of two very similar sized hogs sharing supper together.  Shortly after that we saw a much smaller hog visit.  ‘Mini’, as we nicknamed it, visited in the early hours every night until the beginning of January.  Although small, s/he was clearly fit, healthy and eating well.  Mini now seems to be taking a break so we assume s/he’s also gone into hibernation but as hedgehogs do break their slumber on a regular basis, we will continue to put out food and water on a nightly basis for whenever they need it.

Captured on our live camera in December 2022 – just popping by for a snack

And just a quick disclaimer. The photos here are just for illustrative purposes. I don’t claim to be a photographer. There are lots of stunning wildlife photographers out there capturing nature in and around our borough. This is just me pointing a camera and hoping for the best!!