NEW BTO Breeding Atlas -- Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker - Change in breeding distribution

 Below part of the text re Green Woodpecker...a very relevant species to Pembs

 When talking about distributional change, I have always included Green Woodpecker in the group of species that is spreading north – like Nuthatch and Lesser Whitethroat. Looking at the maps from the 1968–72 and 1988–91 breeding atlases it is easy to focus on new sightings north of the Great Glen and along the coastal strip, east of Inverness. By 1988–91, some new gaps had appeared in the south-west of England, in Wales and in south-west Scotland but the impression of loss is mostly created by reductions in the levels of breeding evidence.
The map alongside brings in the latest results from 2008–11; you can increase the size by clicking on it. An obvious feature is the number of black downward-pointing triangles, indicating losses in the last twenty years, with many of these in coastal Wales but also with losses in a number of other western areas. In contrast, there are lots of new 10-km squares in the east in which the species now breeds, indicated by red upward-pointing triangles. Whilst darker salmon shows squares in which Green Woodpecker was reported in each Atlas period, light salmon means ‘present in 1968–72, not detected 1988–91 and present 2008–11’. It is unclear whether these are squares where Green Woodpeckers did truly disappear in the middle period, or whether they occurred at very low density and were missed.
The change in breeding distribution: red upward-pointing triangles are new gains since 1988–91, open upward-pointing triangles are gains between the first two breeding atlases and solid salmon areas have been occupied since at least 1968–72. Downward-pointing triangles indicate losses; black are recent losses and open triangles are losses between 1968–72 and 1988–91.

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