Two new birds join the 2013 courtship season.

Listen out for great spotted woodpeckers drumming and goldcrests singing this week. In Endon the woodpeckers seem to favour the trees that border the high school playing fields. I have heard them there during spring over the past few years.They find dead wood amongst the trees that makes a far reaching reverberating sound when hammered with their bill. Another good place to hear g. s. woodpeckers is Rudyard Lake - you can hear goldcrests there too. 

Great spotted woodpeckers drum on rotting trunks and branches as part of their springtime courtship display. This one is a male (indicated by the red patch on the back of its head).

 



This photo shows the gold rest on the top of a goldcrest's head. These little birds make a high pitched thin "tsee" call, while their song is a high-pitched, wheeling "tee-le-de, tee-le-de".