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| Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius, Slovenian Karst, 3rd October 2016. With a Great Spotted Woodpecker D. major in the last pic (video). |
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| Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius, Slovenian Karst, 30th September 2016 (by Sara Cernich). Note territorial posture with erected crest. Probably the same bird as in the previous pics. |
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| Bike ride through karstic woodland in search of Middle Spots, Slovenian Karst, 3rd October 2016. |
In autumn woodpeckers start to be more active again and become easier to observe than in summer. At this time they are also more territorial and easier to hear. In two different days I visited an area of oak woodland on the Slovenian Karst, close to the border with Italy, thus not far from the town of Trieste. My target was to connect with the elusive Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius which is rarely distributed in this part of Slovenia and favours older oak woodlands (mostly with Quercus petraea and Q. cerris). In recent months several observers reported one or two Middle Spots from this area, so I really needed to check it out too. Surprisingly, I managed to locate one elusive individual on the 30th of September without any precise directions. Yesterday I returned to the site and on the same tree saw the bird again (video - watch in HD). While watching it, I could hear a second individual calling from afar. The wider area looks very good for the species and seems quite promising in terms of breeding pairs. Next spring this site will be investigated too within the the species' census I began to carry out in March 2016 with the help of DOPPS (BirdLife Slovenia). I'm really looking forward for new discoveries about this interesting species which seems to be colonising karstic woodlands as the oaks get older and mature. I'll keep you updated of course.
