THE WOODPECKER'S NOTE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] am no ornithologist, but I have great opportunities for watching the pied woodpeckers (Spectator, July 16th), as they have practically lived in an oak tree eighteen feet from the window for some years now. Surely the " song " (! ?) is but a mating one, and has nothing to do with the young birds in the nest. As far as my experience goes, it is the hen bird that vibrates her beak on the face of dead wood, it is always the same piece of wood she flies to, and you can watch, not only the vibration on this, but the mate will always respond by flying up from some distant part. It is quite a different thing when the bird is piercing wood—what I am referring to is simply the call, and I have never heard anything but the adult hen do it.
The birds bring their babies every year, those for this year having appeared two or three weeks ago, so I have every opportunity of hearing them at all ages.—! am, Sir, &c., Highstanding, Loughton, Essex. (MRS.) JESSIE G. BOAKE.
Previous page
