Woodpecker excites bird-watchers

Setting up home: rare woodpecker. Picture by Rob O'Connor

THIS cheeky chick was spotted making one of his first appearances from his nest in the trunk of a tree in Leesbrook Nature Reserve.

Chronicle reader Rob O’Connor captured the shot while he was out walking his dog, and said: “It’s a lesser-spotted woodpecker chick. It is the first any of the locals have seen, and some of them have been walking their dogs there for over 10 years.”

The lesser-spotted woodpecker is the smallest and least common of the three woodpeckers resident to Britain.

They are rare in Lancashire, with fewer than 3,000 breeding pairs in the UK. The male is distinguished from the female by his bright red crown.