Is low breeding success the cause of the decline of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in the UK? This was the title of our poster presentation at the 8th International Woodpecker Conference held at Bialowieza, Poland from 16-19 March 2019 using information from Woodpecker Network volunteers. For the full story ...
Our poster combined information on breeding outcomes from nests monitored by LesserSpotNet volunteers since 2015 with the results of research at RSPB in 2007-09 by Ken Smith and Elizabeth Charman.
The poster generated a lot of interest amongst the 120 conference delegates who came from all over the world.
See the poster in full view poster as a PDF here.
We will be posting a report on the talks and other posters at the Conference with specific reference to Lesser Spots. We learned so much.
We are grateful to all the people who have contributed information on Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests for the project and all those who searched for nests in vain.
LesserSpotNet project continues in 2019, if you find a breeding Lesser Spot, and even better if you find a nest, please get in touch to discuss how best to monitor the nest and determine the breeding outcome.