Mark Ash Wood for Lesser-spots 15th March

The weather was sunny with no wind. Highlights were Firecrest. Treecreeper and brief views of Lesser-spotted Woodpecker for some!

We were lucky to have a beautifully sunny early morning, albeit a little cold at first. We listened from the car park, but could hear no Woodpeckers drumming, so we walked into the woodland. Song Thrush and Robin were singing and we saw Great Tit, Blue Tit and a couple of Lesser Redpoll feeding in a birch tree. A Great-spotted Woodpecker was drumming near here. Further on and we saw a Nuthatch quite well. Then we heard a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker drumming. We slowly walked to where it was, but it went quiet and didn’t show itself. We saw a Green Woodpecker fly off though! We walked back a little and Jeremy saw a female Lesser-spotted Woodpecker at the top of a dead tree, but it flew off just as the rest of us saw it. The male started drumming again. Back we went and again it went quiet and didn’t show itself. For the rest of the walk we didn’t hear any more Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers drumming. We saw Great-spotted Woodpecker, had great views of a Treecreeper, watched Stock Doves and another Nuthatch. We walked over to the other side of the road and it was pretty queit over there, but we did have good views of a Firecrest singing.
Simon Curson