Hi the lesser spotted woodpecker has always eluded me until last month. I understood that although its a very rare bird in the UK in parts of central and eastern europe they are far more common and easy to see than in UK Ian
fred,if you need that tick or would just like to see one in gm then it,s gotta be dunham massey in early spring best chance for lesser,birds that constantly elude me there,s a list as long as my arm of could be ,should be but i can,t see it frustrations to contend with, I need greenshank for my gm list and drove past dunham massey with one eye on the sat nav the other two on the fields, but time and tide didn,t let me stop and look so it,s still on my 'wish list' here,s an 'easy' one, red grouse they sit on walls for some people but skulk in the bracken taking the ;;;; whenever i,ve been up to burnt edge and the likes.maybe i,ll save it for my 200th
Rare (uncommon using the correct terminology) in Greater Manchester, Dunham Massey and Worsley woods gets them I believe
Good places too see them are in Cheshire places such as Moore NR and Marbury Country Park in spring before leaves come out on the trees and they are calling. More than one visit might be necessary though.
I find this page useful for finding out how common birds are locally http://www.manchesterbirding.com/systematiclist.htm.
Locally mine would be med gull, seen them at Stocks Reservior but not locally. I'm not birding much at the moment so its unlikely to change for a bit.
mine would have to be the lesser spotted woodpecker.seen plenty of the other two but not the lesser.are they present in this area? has anyone else got one they havnt seen but feel they should have?