Duelling Green Woodpeckers

This morning's walk around the Pit Tip Top and nearby woodland allowed me to witness a fairly rare and secretive event - the display of two male Green Woodpecker. The pair of males were calling around the Small Conservation Area; the first male was perched on top of a fencepost calling, before the other male responded. The first male then proceeded to sway its head and body from side to side, and the other bird flew onto the other side of the post to join it, but in an apparently submissive position, lower down the post. The first bird then slowly lent over the top of the post to the far side, bringing its bill together with the other bird's and retracted it again. This bill movement was repeated several times and, if I recall correctly, was interspersed with the dominant bird calling. An event I feel privelidged to have witnessed.

Also on the Pit Top, several Skylark were singing, and a Song Thrush was singing from the Warren Woodland. Along the path behind Warren Hill were two or three singing Nuthatch, two drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, and a Magpie nest building near the Triangle. A pair of Stock Dove were sat in the dead oak at the top of Ted Heath, but flew off before I could get a decent photo. Other than the birds, a Red Fox was in the western edge of the Pit Tip Plantation, many Common Frog and spawn were in Shopping Trolley Pond, and Three Ponds, and a Brown Rat was amongst the builder's materials in Big Wood School Field.