we have had a family of lesser spotted woodpeckers in our garden the last 8 years, this year not one to be seen. did they have a problem with the long cold winter? the green wood pecker is about. my garden is in northern france.
Hi Lynda
I am sorry I can't helpwith the reasons but there hase been a 72% drop in lesser woodpecker numbers.
May I point you to a RSPB web page: -
http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-204693
Hope this helps...
Robert
Hi,
in the 1970s as a teenage birder I saw LSWPs all over the place mainly due it is believed to Dutch elm disease and the subsequent increase in dead and dying trees providing good feeding areas. The countryside is probably a lot tidier now with less areas of dead trees and certainly less underbrush where breeding birds forage in younger trees , less insects etc. There are fewer large areas of broad leaved woodland and they are fragmented and no longer inter connected. An increase in deer has been cited as possibly THE top reason for decline of spp. such as Nightingale and this may be a factor in LSWP and even woodcock as well.
Open parkland is also a favourite habitat of LSWPs, or at least they are easier to see in that habitat if present.
:)
S
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