Spotted this in my garden this morning

5 comments

1. Woody the woodpecker

2. That’s a rare privilege!

3. Lovely! That’s a rare treat. They’re becoming more widespread here, but still uncommon to see one, I’ve still never seen one!

4. I’d once a pair of great tits around, but she divorced me 🥹

   Na serious, love to see blue tits in the garden, lovely wee bird 🐦. Never seen a woodpecker, well spotted 😊

5. Just thought I would add this.

   ‘If you see a Great Spotted Woodpecker please submit details of the sighting to Ireland’s Citizen Science Portal as it will allow us to continue to track its spread in Ireland’.

   [https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/record/birds#7/53.455/-8.016](https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/record/birds#7/53.455/-8.016)

   Historically Great Spotted Woodpecker bred in Ireland but it probably became extinct as a breeding species during the 17^(th) or 18^(th) Century following the extensive woodland clearance. From that period right up to the beginning of the 21^(st) Century Great Spotted Woodpecker was considered a vagrant, with small numbers of sightings reported mostly during the winter months.  By 1965 there were 66 records of the species in Ireland, and it was recorded in only 15 of the next 50 years after 1953 (Coombes and Wilson 2015), showing how rare a visitor to Ireland it was during the 20^(th) Century. The first confirmed instance of breeding on the island of Ireland in the modern period came in 2006 from County Down. This was followed by the sighting of a juvenile bird on a peanut feeder in Dublin in 2008, and then a quite a dramatic confirmation of breeding in County Wicklow in 2009 when seven occupied nest were located. The breeding population has increased each year since then. By 2015, there were at least 35 occupied nests and breeding had extended from County Wicklow to counties Wexford, Kilkenny, Dublin and Monaghan (Coombes and Wilson 2015).