Woodpeckers drumming up spring
IT’S started again!
That knocking when I wander out into our local woods.
Sometimes it’s some distance away, sometimes it’s up high in a nearby tree.
Of course, this is the drumming of the great spotted woodpecker, marking its territory and informing partners of its presence in spring.
Woodpeckers don’t have a particularly distinctive song, so they drum, pecking at trees or other surfaces, like telegraph poles.
Like lots of wildlife behaviour there is some mystery surrounding drumming and some people believe that it could be letting other birds know about a tasty food source or a cry for help – is there a predator around.
You can certainly hear different kinds of drumming, so these are likely to be different messages.
And experts believe powerful drumming will show that the woodpecker is a strong and dominant bird, keeping competitors away from its territory.
You will hear drumming mainly in spring and early in the morning but don’t be surprised to hear some later in the day.
The great spotted woodpecker is our most common woodpecker, about the size of a starling but more obvious in its dipping, up and down flight.
I wander along one of our local tree-lined lanes every day and I am not surprised to see woodpeckers.
I don’t generally see them close up but that distinctive flight as they fly away makes them easy to spot.
They are black and white, with white shoulder patches and red underneath the tail.
Males have a red patch on the back of their head.
There are two other kinds of woodpecker, the much rarer lesser spotted woodpecker, which has a red cap, and the green woodpecker, which is green with a red cap and black mask.
Great spotted woodpeckers nest in holes they have excavated in trees, in woods, parks and some larger gardens.
They eat insects and insect larvae, probing into crevices with their bills and long sticky tongues.
During autumn and winter they have been feeding on berries and will have been spotted eating peanuts from your garden feeders.
Now spring has arrived those sticky tongues will be busy feeding on the insect buffet that the warmer weather has brought to life.
And feeding will intensify when young birds are born and you are likely to spot adults moving around looking for food.
All that is a little way off yet and it will be the drumming that will be a common sound in woods and parks.
It is a reassuring sound that spring is on the way, heralding warmer days and more comfortable times for our woodpeckers and other wildlife.
Hopefully, more of us can get out of our houses and into local beauty spots, even our own gardens will be a great place for spring wildlife.
And if you hang up your bird-feeder, full of peanuts, you might just be lucky enough to get a visit from a woodpecker.