I post on another bird site and there is a lady there who states that on Sunday last she saw a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker feeding in her garden. Sorry, no picture! The problem is that she lives in Hamilton, Scotland, which is about 12 miles outside Glasgow. She is positive that it was a LSW. I cannot find any references anywhere to LSWs having been sighted anywhere in Scotland before. I would be grateful if there are any members who might have heard of such sightings. Thank you.
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Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Scotland? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Franmol
- Start date
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
Sounds unlikely although you never know. A lot of people mistake juvenile Great Spotted woodpeckers for lessers - they see the red cap, but don't notice the white wing patches and size. However, I'm not sure if juvenile GSWs would still have red caps at this time of the year.
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
Just had a look at the animated maps on the Birdtrack website
http://www.bto.org/birdtrack/dailyresults/results20.htm
There are a few records from the Glasgow area this year (May, a couple in August, and September). I don't know what sort of quality control they have on birdtrack, but perhaps they do occur that far north afterall.
http://www.bto.org/birdtrack/dailyresults/results20.htm
There are a few records from the Glasgow area this year (May, a couple in August, and September). I don't know what sort of quality control they have on birdtrack, but perhaps they do occur that far north afterall.
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Capercaillie71 said:
No, they don't. But then neither do female LSW. Nuthatches have been creeping north, so it's possible. Certainly the time of year for it.
One caveat though - LSW don't seem to visit feeders like GSW. They seem to prefer insects to nuts.
Mark Grantham
Well-known member
BirdTrack does occasionally receive records of Lesser Spots from Scotland, and some of these could well be genuine. We do pick up a lot of them when checking data and some turn out to be Great Spots in the end. The easiest thing to get people to look for is undertail colour, as this is generally quite obvious. It is still a rare bird in Scotland though, and anyone submitting a record is prompted to contact the recorder to submit fuller details.
Mark Grantham
BirdTrack Organiser
www.birdtrack.net
Mark Grantham
BirdTrack Organiser
www.birdtrack.net
AStevenson
Well-known member
LSW is extremely rare in Scotland much rarer in occurrence than many 'official' rarities - it is a description species with the Scottish Birds Records Committee. There have been odd records inc possible breeding in Perthshire in late 1960s/early 70s (1968 was the 1st record) and reports but many reports are doubted.
Great Spot is more likely in the location - but if it is Lesser Spot it may well spark a twitch!!
Cheers,
Andrew
Great Spot is more likely in the location - but if it is Lesser Spot it may well spark a twitch!!
Cheers,
Andrew
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Bamiller_birder said:
That's very interesting. They may well visit them regularly given the opportunity, but I've never heard of it and never seen it, but then there isn't really an awful lot of opportunity to find out these days, seeing as they're so uncommon!
Poecile said:
Our Lithuanian correspondent seems to get them on his feeders quite regularly.
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Andrew Whitehouse said:
Yeah, I had a feeling he'd said that too. Birds often do slightly different things on the continent to Britain though, especially sedentary species like LSW, Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, GSW, Willow Tit etc. In Lithuania, the winters are much more fierce so they've got little choice. Britain's balmy by comparison, and the habitat and food availabiltiy is probably very different. Be interestign to do a straw poll of British birdfeeders and see how many have had them, but you just know that the numbers will be low due to the low population, so it will be inconclusive (you'll always get an odd few doing atypical things too).
BWP syas food is "almost exclusively insects" and that techniques for dealing with seeds and nuts are poor. But it also quotes a study that gives 6% of feeding time at bird tables. No mention of what they were eating (if anything) though. Of the many stomach content studeis given, virtually all contained just insects, and the only one to have something different had the flesh of pears and plums.
Be interesting to see what this bird turns out to be.
Mary Evelyn
New member
Franmol said:
Great to see your post Fran and hope you get the answer. :flowers: Mind you,if you don't know it who will. o
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Macswede said:
That's eating fat isn't it? That's interesting too, because in winter many birds will visit corpses to eat fatty issue. So that's not much of a change for a Swedish 'pecker to visit a fat ball rather than a deer corpse that's been opened by a predator.
Mike Pennington
Registered Member
According to the forthcoming Birds of Scotland, due in 2007 and which I have had some involvement with, the only Scottish record of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was of up to three birds occasionally visiting a bird table in a garden next to Duchray Castle, Aberfoyle (Upper Forth) during the autumn and winter months of 1968 and 1970. Even this record is not above suspicion. They were only actually seen twice, once without bins, and only by one observer, but they have survived several reviews of the Scottish List. All other claims in Scotland are unsubstantiated.
So not just rare, but absolutely mega in a Scottosh context, up there with a second Rufous-tailed Robin (except more people have that on their Scottish list).
So not just rare, but absolutely mega in a Scottosh context, up there with a second Rufous-tailed Robin (except more people have that on their Scottish list).
Original PaulE
Well-known member
nice picture and don't want to seem as a moaner but when i first started feeding birds i used to put the food out in bags like the one in the picture until i came home and found a starling with its tongue caught in it pulled itself off before i got to it unfortunatley left it's tongue behind not a pretty sight would be shame if it happened to your woodpeckerMacswede said:
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