Saturday, December 03, 2011
A lesser spotted woodpecker in the Portman Burtley woods (Dorney Wood) adjoining Burnham Beeches was compensation for not going further afield today. As usual the bird was silent and I located it by scanning the trees with the naked eye; but I'd only just got onto it when a great spotted woodpecker flew into the same tree and chased it away.
It didn't go far, and the move was a bonus for me as it revealed the red cap of a male.
Two marsh tits were a nice find as I haven't seen any for ages; and there were plenty of redwings, goldcrests, nuthatches, and treecreepers, although I saw only two lesser redpolls on a fairly limited round walk.
Later, I had a second sighting of a lesser spotted woodpecker in Egypt Woods; again it was a male and it could well have been the same bird. Today's encounter was my first sighting in the three woods since March and my eighth there this year.
// posted by Christine @ 4:52 AM 
