Great Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major )

A welcome visitor.  The Great Spotted Woodpecker was a regular visitor, however, unlike in previous years, it didn't appear over winter.  Presumably, with the mild winter, it was finding enough food.  I suspect the visits at this time of the year are refueling stops.  Refueling for the adult while searching for food for either a mate on the nest or chicks.  It is interesting that, as in this case, it is almost always the male which arrives.

I have wondered if it is the same bird we get year after year.  As the age record, set by ringing recoveries, is 11 years 10 months 21 days, it is quite probable.  As a species they are doing well they now have 5 times the population now that they had in the late 60s.