Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

 

You will probably see a lot of better pictures of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers but for me these are special. I hadn't seen one for over 50 years and I have spent many hours looking. I have been close to a few. Standing at the bottom of a tree listening to the drumming, then hearing it start up again 50 metres away, when seemingly nothing had flown from the tree I was watching. A real bogey bird.

They are not a common bird in Sussex being mostly confined to a few woods in the northern part of the county. I really wanted to see one and for 2022 I had decided to target the New Forest, Burnham Beeches, and Cassiobury Park. All places I had tried before without success but this time it was going to be different. I would get there before the trees turned to leaf and spend all day looking for the Lesser Spot rather than getting distracted by other interesting birds. In 2022 I was going to nail it.

Then reports started to come in of occasional sightings of one in the Fattengates area of Pulburough Brooks. It had to be worth a look.

Needless to say it was not easy. Six hours walking the paths around the area last week just left me frustrated. Lesser Spots have big territories and it is pure luck being in the right place at the right time. Today I spent another morning walking the paths. By one o'clock I was ready to give up and move on. One last check and in the distance was a lone small bird foraging high in a tree. Most noticeable was its speed and style of movement flicking between branches. Backtracking a bit and I had it in the bins with the red cap clearly visible.

Getting a picture was an altogether different challenge. The light was poor, the camera was struggling to pull focus through the dense tree branches and the bird was moving rapidly making it difficult to keep in frame. It was also a long way off so these pictures are big crops. They are not good but then yesterday I had no pictures of Lesser Spots so they are better than nothing, a lot better.

I only had sight of the bird for a couple of minutes and when it flew it disappeared over the hedgerows and out of view. I searched but could not find it, perhaps its large territory means that it will travel longer distances between foraging stops.

As always, I would like to get some better pictures, so at some stage I will be going back for another look but for now I am more than happy. I have my record shots and seeing it now has freed up a number of birding days that were going to be dedicated to it next year.

The red cap shows that this is a male so we could be lucky with this one staying on territory and attracting a mate to the area as well.