Lesser Spotted Woodpecker sample survey in England 2007

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Description

A total of 70 woods were surveyed for occupancy by Lesser spotted woodpecker in 2007. Woods were also surveyed for habitat, Great spotted Woodpecker occupancy and Grey Squirrel density. Data were analysed together with data from previous studies in the 1980s to investigate factors affecting Lesser spotted Woodpecker occupancy. This dataset contains presence/absence records for all surveyed woods along with breeding status. Records are given at 100m resolution which represents the centroid of the transect route through the wood. Work was funded by RSPB and Natural England

Geographic Description

Broad-leaved woods in the New Forest, Yorkshire and Worcestershire

Purpose

To survey lesser spotted woodpecker distribution in three distinct regions, and to investigate factors affecting this distribution

Data quality

These data have been gathered by trained field-workers and the data are of a high quality

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These data have been mapped and checked for sensitivities and typographical/geographical errors

Methods

See paper for detailed methods

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Woods were visited during daylight hours between 1st March and 20th April, avoiding days with heavy rain and strong wind. Woods were surveyed by selecting a transect route which covered as of the wood as possible. Survey duration was scaled to the size of the block of wood as follows:

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less than 30 ha 3 hours, 30-50ha 4 hours, 50-70ha 5 hours and 70+ha 6 hours

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Once a bird had been observed in a wood (by sight ,calling or drumming), the site was classified as 'occupied'. Woods were re-surveyed until a bird was located or until the survey period ended, whichever was sooner.

Citation

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ([Insert download year]). Lesser Spotted Woodpecker sample survey in England 2007. Occurrence dataset on the NBN Atlas

Rights

CC-BY

Digitised records