Lesser Spot nesting update May 2026
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From now until early June is the time to look for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests. Adults are actively feeding their young, so become more detectable. Our volunteers have located 11 potential nest sites so far and we have the number of eggs or young for 4 nests.
We are optimistic for this nesting season. Good breeding success in 2025 and sustained efforts with passive sound recorders this spring have identified LSW in many more woodlands than previously thought.
LesserSpotNet volunteers have identified potential nests in Devon, Somerset, the New Forest, Sussex, Kent, the Home Counties, Norfolk, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
Setting up and using sound recorders for detecting Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers
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Over the last two years we have successfully used passive acoustic monitors to detect the calling and drumming of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (LSW). We have now written this guidance note/protocol for Song Meters to detect LSW to provide more of the practical details for using the method with the Song Meter Mini and Micro from Wildlife Acoustics.
Acoustic Monitoring for detection of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers
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Our new paper just published in December's British Birds describes how we have successfully developed sound recording 'Bioacoustics' as a tool for the detection and monitoring of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. We have found Lesser Spots still present in woodlands where they have not been seen/heard for years. This is a very exciting -
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 2025 Report
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Our full Lesser Spotted Woodpecker report for 2025 is here -thanks to the brilliant support of our network of volunteers, it has been a remarkably positive year.
It includes how passive acoustic monitoring (sound recording) to detect LSW calls and drumming was amazingly successful at sites through Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset, detecting LSW at known sites but also at many sites where they had not been recorded before.
And how in the breeding season LesserSpotNet volunteers monitored 24 nests – the most in any year since we started the project in 2015. The average number of chicks fledged per nest was the highest ever.
BTO Marsh Award 2024 for Woodpecker Network
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Woodpecker Network was honoured to accept the 2024 Marsh Award for Local Ornithology at the BTO Awards Evening hosted by the Society of Wildlife Artists at the Natural Eye Exhibition at the Mall Gallery in October 2024.