Listen up if you hear the drumming of a woodpecker

Most people with an interest in birds are aware of the exciting news that about a decade ago great spotted woodpeckers arrived in Ireland and that since then they have been breeding and spreading. 

Genetic studies carried out in UCD indicate they almost certainly came from Britain, where the population of this woodpecker has been increasing rapidly in recent times.

The experts don’t agree on whether this is a colonisation or a re-colonisation. My own opinion is great spotted woodpeckers were once an Irish native species and the last ones probably lived in west Munster in the 17th century. I believe they became extinct when the planters cleared the great forests.