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Talkback: Great spotted woodpeckers

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
We have regular visits from these birds especially in spring when they are feeding their young. One pair and their returning progeny prefer our fat ball feeders whilst the others prefer the peanut feeders.

They tend to disappear once fledging is over and the babies have been shown teh feeders but the peanuts have been visited again every day for the past two weeks?

Instead of mocking their knocking, why not just feed them?
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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I,m lucky to have a spotted woodpecker visit one of my peanut feeders every morning a great sight.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have a male and a female who come to my garden, separately, several times per day. The male confines himself to one of the peanut feeders, whereas the apparently smarter female has learned to shimmy under the chicken wire hanging from the 'roof' around one of my bird tables (there to prevent woodpigeons from vacuuming up in ten minutes a day's food for dozens of small birds) to gather a whole peanut each time
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Update
    Saw it, today, Sunday. At the end of the garden to put my saw back in the shed (cutting logs for fire), I again heard that gentle tap-tap-tapping from next door. I climbed onto the bench and leaned precariously against the fence, craning my neck over the ivy and rose thicket that marks the end of Jones territory in East Dulwich. It was on my neighbour's old plum tree, banging away at a crook in one of the larger branches.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I often go to the park behind the BBC on my lunch break. Occasionally there are two great-spotted woodpeckers in the silver birches. It's wonderful watching and listening to them at work - just yards away from the hustle and bustle of Shepherd's Bush.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have a great spotted woodpecker which comes in my garden most days.It only eats the suet thats hanging on my bird feeder,im lucky that my house backs on to a very large overgrown field with woods behind it so i get a large variety of wildlife.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    We get a greater spotted woodpecker coming to our fatball and peanut feedrs nearly every day. Last autumn a juvenile flew off the feeder on our terrace and flew staright into the window - out cold! As we have cats, I gathered it up and put it in a hanging basket on the trellis, and after about 15 mintues, it flew off - seeming OK again.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have two Woodpeckers enjoying my peanut feeder. I think we also have younger ones...is that possible this time of the year. I am not a twitcher but I am made up at seeing these birds in my garden. I have pictures and video so maybe somebody call make a call on exactly what type they are.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I've very recently moved to rural Anglesey from the inner city of M/C and have a bird feeder and peanut feeder in my garden.Today I saw two beautiful greater spotted woodpeckers in the apple tree-the male working very hard at the peanuts then hopping over to feed the other,less colourful one perched nearby.is it his mate or a young one?whatever,I feel so lucky!!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I live in Swaledale and throughout the spring and summer months we have several greater spotted woodpeckers visiting out peanuts etc. in our garden. They leave us during the nesting period, then bring their babies on to the fence where they feed them with the peanuts from their mouths. At approximately the end of September they all disappear again. We live at the edge of Ayley Ghyll wood and in past years we have assumed they stop coming because of the plentiful supply of hazelnuts in the wood and we have always enjoyed seeing their return by the end of November, beginning of December. Maybe the extreme cold weather is keeping them away but so far they have not returned. Can anyone tell me just exactly where they go during their absent period?
    3.12.2010
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Reply to Barbara Guy
    Greater-spotted woodpeckers occur in the British Isles all year round. In the really cold weather, they may just be sheltering, or foraging elsewhere.
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