Woodpecker

[Chappers51]

Cranes flew over here both Monday and yesterday afternoons.

[exile]

The spotted and green are residents, I get them at least the lesser spotted and greater spotted scraping with the other birds for the fat balls, the greens tend to forage on the floor, the loud drumming' a brief noise that sounds like a machine gun is the black woodpecker, it is black with a red head, often heard not often seen.

That could well be true where you are but is not universally so. I have heard the "machine gun" drumming in the UK - well outside the range of the black.

[hughnique]

We used to get Hoopoe in the summer but not seen them for a couple of years now.

[Spectrum]

[/quote]

That could well be true where you are but is not universally so. I have heard the "machine gun" drumming in the UK - well outside the range of the black.
[/quote]

They are just across the channel and up into Scandinavia, so one could have got lost or are you near an army firing range

[Blaze]

The drumming sound in this area is generally from the Greater Spotted woodpecker, not the black, which hasn't been seen in the Baie de Mont Saint Michel. Very occasionally we saw a Black Woodpecker when we lived in Maine et Loire but far more often the Greater Spotted.

[Spectrum]

The drumming sound in this area is generally from the Greater Spotted woodpecker, not the black, which hasn't been seen in the Baie de Mont Saint Michel. Very occasionally we saw a Black Woodpecker when we lived in Maine et Loire but far more often the Greater Spotted.

The Greater spotted drums in a "Roll" type of noise, ie very difficult to hear individual strikes, as I said the Black sounds like a machine gun, you could count each strike, audible up to 4Klms, they are not normally found in South Eastern parts of France. Personally never seen a Black but lots of Greater and Middle spotted as well as Greens, and as mentioned a least two or three Hoopoes each year on the land.