Lesser spotted woodpecker: How you can listen out for the lesser spotted woodpecker in Yorkshire

But it is worth listening carefully to the drumming for one that is subtly different and might lead you to a much rarer bird, the lesser spotted woodpecker.

The larger woodpecker's drumming is a short burst of sound but the lesser's drumming is weaker and softer but each burst goes on longer and ends abruptly rather than just dying asway.

The lesser also has a pee pee pee call, not unlike one of the Spring calls of the nuthatch, so these are always worth checking as well.

THe lesser spotted is not an easy bird to see, being truly tiny, about the same size as a house sparrow and Europe's smallest woodpecker.

It is barred across the back, not spotted like the great, and the male has a red crown.

Lesser spotted woodpeckers have never been as common as the great spotted but are declining at such a rate that there is real concern that they can survive as a breeding bird in this country.

Woodpecker Network, set up to monitor the declining population of lessers, reported that last year only 11 nests were found in the whole of the UK, one of the poorest breeding seasons since the network was founded in 2015,

Many of the nests failed before they reached the stage of noisy young with the eventual average of just over one per nest probably not enough to sustain the population.

This is a catastrophic decline for a species already one of the UK's fastest declining birds.

The Woodpecker Network is starting up again now and is asking birders to look out for lesser spotted woodpeckers and if they find one record full details and location to help obtain a fuller picture of what is happening.

Co-ordinators are Ken and Linda Smith based in Chichester, West Sussex and they can be contacted by phone on 07815 456280 or by e mail,

The week saw the arrival of more sand martins and the first black-necked of the year back at breeding sites.