SPOTTED!
Wildlife in (and around) Hailsham
by Tim Fox
With rain forecast for the afternoon, a late morning ramble along the Cuckoo Trail was in order on a dull February day. My entrance via Freshfields Close was heralded by house sparrows, with blue tits next up as I continued walking. A repetitive mechanical tapping was in the distance, which I initially dismissed as machinery from the Station Road Industrial Estate but, as I got closer to the source and it became louder in relation to the songs of the sparrows, robins, tits, blackbirds, dunnock and goldcrest, I realised it was not man made, but of avian source: great spotted woodpecker (GSW – scientific name dendrocops major, derived from Greek words dendron – tree – and kopos – striking). With Spring just around the corner, the male of this pied black and white (with a red bum!) species (which can be distinguished from female by the presence of a red patch on the back of his skull) lays claim to his territory by selecting “sounding trees” – large tall trees that amplify the sound of his drumming – and making as much noise as possible to deter competitors from his patch. Sadly for me, there were no other drumming woodpeckers in earshot and with no drum-off, the drumming soon stopped. In my 20+ years of living in town, the closest a GSW has been to my garden (that I know of) was when one flew onto the Station Road lime trees (near to what is now a vets but some may remember as one of the Kerridges’ properties). He/she was too far away to spot my peanut feeder at my bird feeding station, but hopefully the one I saw on the Cuckoo Trail is rewarding anyone in the nearby houses who has bird food out with his presence.
GSM image source: http://peterbagnall-photography.co.uk/main/images/greater-spotted-woodpecker
Tim can be found most Saturday mornings gracing the airwaves with Pat Bradley on 95.9 Hailsham FM, discussing local happenings between 8 and 10am.
