Green woodpeckers

[LauraW]

I saw two green woodpeckers in Camberwell Old Cemetery on Sunday.

[tim hill]

theres one over the road from me,in "one tree hill" church yard

[MrsR]

I had one in my garden this morning with its long beak in my lawn. I have never seen it before - a red tuft on it's head and when it flew off a yellow bottom - very striking and beautiful.

[JohnL]

cider woodpecker :)

[woodland]

They are parakeets. I have got a bird feeder and they are lovely to see up close through the window - there are a lots of them around SE london.

[philosophie]

There are parakeets AND woodpeckers! Got very excited about spotting a woodpecker at East Dulwich Station on Sunday. Because I'm a bit sad like that :-)

[Sue]

woodland Wrote:

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> They are parakeets.

xxxxx

Parakeets don't have red tufts on their heads - not the ones we get round here, anyway :))

Green woodpecker:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/Images/uploads/Content/Birds/GreenWoodpecker.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/Information/54/Green_Woodpecker-C-_Identification-C-_Habitat_and_Food.html&h=635&w=400&sz=21&tbnid=pVjh7bsyR-W5YM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=64&zoom=1&usg=__5aBclCI7jWn8XONRNtVPSwsFMF4=&docid=2BlFzcdSJRp-nM&sa=X&ei=y0RkUYblLISX1AWKo4CAAg&ved=0CDcQ9QEwAQ&dur=1796

Green parakeet (I think this is the right one?):

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.free-pet-wallpapers.com/free-pet-wallpapers/free-pet-desktop-backgrounds/554152970.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.free-pet-wallpapers.com/Birds-pet-wallpapers/Parrot-birds/Aratinga-holochlora-green-Parakeet.html&h=1003&w=1254&sz=192&tbnid=ipzogWpf_rv3-M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=116&zoom=1&usg=__DuI0Gy7jb0wUYuwwKid9SQDMLXg=&docid=KHYxS-jAnaJtXM&sa=X&ei=_0RkUcWHCeWa0QWhwYAY&ved=0CD0Q9QEwAw&dur=1749

Also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Green_Woodpecker

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_parakeets

[maxxi]

philosophie Wrote:

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> There are parakeets AND woodpeckers! Got very

> excited about spotting a woodpecker at East

> Dulwich Station on Sunday. Because I'm a bit sad

> like that :-)

Caught a LB bound train at 12-ish today and could have sworn I heard a woodpecker in the trees between the platform and those houses around Dulwich Hamlet Fc - this post makes me think it really might have been...?

[Alex K]

Maxxi, I live on that estate. I've heard the woodpeckers' drumming. To hear it makes me happy.

[tim hill]

same here ALEX

[Burbage]

maxxi Wrote:

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> Caught a LB bound train at 12-ish today and could

> have sworn I heard a woodpecker in the trees

> between the platform and those houses around

> Dulwich Hamlet Fc - this post makes me think it

> really might have been...?

It'll have been a woodpecker, but probably one of the spotted woodpeckers (most likely lesser spotted), as they do more drumming. We've also, apparently, got greater spotted woodpeckers round here too, which do the same thing. And treecreepers, which are a sort of woodpecker that creep up trees, that don't.

The green ones make a noise like a mad horse, most like the noise that the little grebes make on the lake, except that the little grebes call falls in pitch as it goes on, and they live on the lake, which woodpeckers don't.

If all goes well, and the drumming works out, in a few weeks time we should start hearing the woodpecker chicks squeaking from inside holes in trees. Parrots do that too, but there's usually one of the adult parrots nearby, in which case it's not a woodpecker. I think that the parrot gets fed too, when the other adult returns, but I'm not sure. They do a bit of nose-rubbing before one of them vomits down the other's neck, so that might be more in the way of courtship. Not that there's any obvious distinction between courtship and being fed, except in the case of humans, and even then the two seem to be easily confused.

[maxxi]

Thanks for the info. - I've heard all kinds of birds over in Peckham Rye Park, especially at dusk, but this today was quite unexpected and, while I couldn't see it, it cheered up a gloomy platform.

[fl0wer]

Green woodpeckers rely on ants as part of their diet. It is a good indicator that people are leaving the insects alone in orchards and in unmown lawns, especially.

I learnt yesterday that their unusually distinctive cry is known as 'yaffling'.

This is different from any other bird, including the green parakeet -

and some descriptions related to spotted woodpeckers, which you will probably notice drumming on tree bark.

[Jeremy]

As maxxi/alex k/tim hill say, there are certainly woodpeckers along the railway line. Anyone who lives along Quorn Rd, Ivanhoe Rd, Copleston Rd, etc will hear them every day.

[ianr]

Is this a spate?

[Siduhe]

fl0wer Wrote:

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> I learnt yesterday that their unusually

> distinctive cry is known as 'yaffling'.

Indeed. Hence Professor Yaffle*

*for those who didn't grow up in the UK in the 70s - please see...

[Sue]

I used to work at Dulwich Hospital many moons ago, and I sometimes saw Great Spotted Woodpeckers from my office window, which was at the back and overlooked the wild ground by the railway.

Well, only one at a time, so maybe it was always the same one :)

[Angharad_L]

I've def seen a woodpecker while walking up to the train platform, I heard it first and then spotted it in the trees! x

[pearl1]

Are there any owls around here? I could swear I heard one along greendale a few nights back, but that's the first time in 17 years! Is it possible or am I imagining it?

[Guest]

definitely a green woodpecker - not a parakeet! we saw one in the cemetery on good friday, lovely flash of green swooping along. I think they are rarer than the spotted ones?

[Jeremy]

pearl1 Wrote:

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> Are there any owls around here? I could swear I

> heard one along greendale a few nights back, but

> that's the first time in 17 years! Is it possible

> or am I imagining it?

It's not unheard of...

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,639480,639763#msg-639763