Three-woodpecker day!

Alan Gibson did well this morning with a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in trees in the new animal enclosure, on the north side of the park east and down-slope from the boating pond. This is a difficult species to find in Alexandra Park these days, and the first record for some time. Birds are usually easiest to find in early spring, when drumming males (if present) can be more readily located by sound and by sight in the leafless canopy of oaks and elms. Along with Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers also recorded this morning, 8th January will be remembered as a rare three-woodpecker day.