Mibo's on the Veluwe

Middle-spotted Woodpeckers have been increasing rapidly in our country. At first, you had to go all the way to Limburg to see some Middle-spotted Woodpeckers, but nowadays that's not necessary anymore. They're occupying small parts of the Veluwe as well now.

Below a map with all the sightings of Middle-spotted Woodpeckers in our province Gelderland.

Distribution of Middle-Spotted Woodpeckers in Gelderland. Note the large(r) concentrations in the Achterhoek (especially Winterswijk), near Arnhem and Nijmegen.

My dad had seen one Middle-Spotted Woodpecker near Hoog Soeren last Monday, so today our goal was to get to see it(or them) again. At the location we first had one male Middle-spotted Woodpecker calling and singing. At one point a Jay started imitating the singing Middle-spotted Woodpecker! Below the recording:

Too bad of the background noise (''sound bubbles''), probably has to do with the app I use on my phone.

Anyway, after this first bird we heard some more Middle-spotted Woodpeckers calling, showing territorial behaviour. And for the next 15-20 minutes we experienced some great activity! Three Middle-spotted Woodpeckers were flying after each other, calling, singing, etc. A real treat! 

Middle-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus medius), male

Then as we did another round we found a 4th Middle-spotted Woodpecker, foraging quite low to the ground. 

Middle-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus medius)

Next to the Middle-spotted Woodies we had Great-Spotted, Lesser-spotted, Black and Green Woodpecker. So 5 species of Woodpecker in one day!