Thanks to the brilliant support of Woodpecker Network volunteers, 2026 has been another remarkable year for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (LSW) studies.

Following the success of using passive acoustic monitoring (sound recording) to detect LSW calls and drumming last year, we extended the coverage to many more counties. This included Wales, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Wiltshire, Essex, Dorset and Surrey, as well as more sites in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset. This was amazingly successful, detecting LSW at known sites but also at many sites where they had not been recorded before.
Six chicks in the nest nearly ready to fledgeIn the breeding season volunteers found and monitored 29 nests – the most in any year since we started the project in 2015. We don’t have all the details yet but can report that the average number of chicks fledged per nest was good. Highlights were six young fledged from a nest in the Home Counties and five from one in Kent. There were a few failures but overall, 2026 is all very positive. 

We will post our full breeding season report once we have collated all the data.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers who spent time in the woods searching for nests and collecting data.

Our exclusive Lesser Spot pin badges were awarded to six more volunteers who found and monitored their first LSW nests in 2026.