‘Jay in Magnolia’ acrylic, 23 x 32 cms. For sale, please enquire. Jays are widespread throughout the UK except for northern Scotland. They inhabit gardens where they may be seen more easily rather than being hidden in woodlands, their other habitat of choice.

Congratulations to Jamie C. Weir for this excellent work on caterpillars which is of importance to Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and their breeding success

Pleased to help observe a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nest in the New Forest, too high in a dead Beech to inspect with nest camera. The pair changed over once during an hour watch so nest is still active and at egg incubating stage (which takes 11 days). All good information.

Lesser Spotted young will start calling from the nest soon, giving a chance to monitor their brood size and diet. The last week in May/first week in June is usually when they’re heard calling. Here are young LSW calling from a birch stump (GSW clip next) LesserSpot Network

GSW young for comparison

Now is your last chance to find a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nest. The young will be calling from the nest hole and you may hear them. So have a good search in your local woods. Our volunteers are watching/monitoring 16 nests in the Midlands & Southern England. 2 were found today!

Fantastic news 19 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests found & being watched/monitored by our volunteers. Most have 4 chicks, well fed by the adults. Nests are so difficult to find & these are only a tiny proportion of the 2000+ LSW pairs in Britain, but all very positive this year.

Successful visit to Kent to 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests, our endoscope revealed 4 chicks ready to fledge, 11 m high in a dead Ash & 3 chicks snug in a dead Oak. Thanks to our volunteers PC & JSD for finding the nests & showing them to us - all very positive for success

Some Lesser Spotted Woodpecker chicks are fledging this week. At a nest in East Sussex today, we saw at least one chick being fed in the nest high in this Hornbeam tree and the adults feeding two more juveniles close by. Thanks to MA & RB for finding and showing us the nest

Another day - another 3 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests found and being monitored in Devon and the New Forest. Great work by LesserSpotNet volunteers. Healthy chicks being well fed by both parents in all the nests. More nests could be found this week.

LesserSpotNet special pin badges presented by Gus GusRobin to volunteers, Stuart stuart keenor LCGI (left) & Ed @edhorncastle.bsky.social (right) who found and monitored breeding outcomes at LSW nests in Devon - many thanks both

Our special pin badges will be presented to more LesserSpotNet volunteers in the next few days.

It was a real delight to go down to Burlington House the other week, to tour the The Linnean Society of London collections and receive this year's John C. Marsden medal, for the best biology PhD thesis in the UK. It was, and remains, a tremendous honour. Interested in my thesis? 👇

You can find many of the key ideas discussed in my recent Global Change Biology paper: 'Buffering and phenological mismatch: a change of perspective' onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gc…

Nice day out in the East Midlands on Saturday. Highlights were 5 Black hairstreak and a Bi coloured Bee orchid.

Upland oakwood on Dartmoor, one of the last refuges in Devon for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker #30DaysWild LesserSpot Network provided a comprehensive account of the decline and challenges facing this species in britishwildlife.com/article/articl…

1/6 A Green Sandpiper paper in 'Milvus', the journal of Welsh Ornithological Society 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 is now available for all to read: birdsin.wales/wp-content/upl… Some highlights in this thread 👇 #ornithology

Read our blog to find out more and access the report: naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2025/08/15/how… In partnership with Buglife Plantlife RSPB England Environment Agency Bat Conservation Trust Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Butterfly Conservation 🦋 Mammal Society Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Normally an outstanding golden feature of early autumn in Silwood, this fine specimen of Betula lenta is looking particularly sorry for itself after the drought of summer 2025, with leaf browning and premature leaf-fall.

Here are some sample pages from my next book THE PIED WOODPECKERS. Due out February 2026. What you do think?