Brought to you by Woodland Ways
Two of the UK’s woodpecker species live on Moreton Hall. Green woodpeckers are occasionally seen on grassland pecking for invertebrates, and great spotted woodpeckers are occasionally seen in our woods. the third woodpecker species, lesser spotted woodpecker, is now rare in the UK and has not been seen in this area.
Great spotted woodpeckers are blackbird-sized beautiful black, white birds which need older trees. They have a very distinctive bouncing flight and spends most of their time clinging to tree trunks and branches, often trying to hide on the side away from you.
A few years ago, a pair nested in Home Covert. In the spring and summer, great spotted woodpeckers mostly eat and feed their young on caterpillars found on leaves high in the trees. In winter, however, they use their sharp and tough beaks to excavate beetles and grubs from dead wood. Dead wood on the ground is an important foraging source, as is dead branches on trees.
Woodland Ways has a habitat of leaving dead wood on the ground, normally with smaller branches in piles for hedgehogs and toads to hibernate under, but also logs are left for a wider range of species. Not many people want a dead branch overhanging their house or over a path, but where a dead branch is on a tree in the middle of a wood, where no-one goes, the risk is minimal. These dead branches are important to great spotted woodpeckers.
This spring, if you hear a woodpecker drumming on a tree, it is a male trying to attract a female and scare off other males simultaneously.
Try and track down the source of the noise; you may be lucky enough to find a nest!
Join us at Woodland Ways…
Why not join in with a Woodland Ways work party to help improve the Moreton Hall woods? No experience is needed and all are welcome; we’ll show you what to do.
For more information please see www.woodlandways.org.uk, see the Woodland Ways noticeboard in the Community Centre, contact Nick Sibbett on 01284 723847 or email information@woodlandways.org.uk.
