Your wild spring

The best of the season’s wildlife and where to enjoy it on your local patch

And the beat goes on…

Guess how many beats per second a great spotted woodpecker makes with its beak. Five? Ten? Try 40! The great spotted is one of three native woodpeckers and by far the best drummer. Its frantic drumming helps attract a mate, with beats rasping out across woodlands from January to June. Lesser spotted woodpeckers look similar but are a lot smaller and a lot rarer – just 3,000 breeding pairs remain in the UK. No problem finding a green woodpecker though. The largest of our woodpeckers is a common garden visitor, often seen on lawns hunting for ants and other titbits. Listen out for its laugh-like ‘yaffle’.

See Them This Spring

† Bowdown Wood Listen for both great and lesser spotted woodpeckers in these woods.

† Little Linford Wood Head towards the mature oak and ash for a chance of hearing a great spotted woodpecker.

† Wells Farm This working farm is a great place to seek out green woodpeckers.

A big thankyou!

Money from your membership goes towards protecting essential habitat for birds such as woodpeckers. From them – and us – thank you!