March 9th - first russian tick - Dendrocopos medius OR NOT...

Ok so I did take this pic but this morning I saw, in my little park, a smallish woodpecker. Firstly I heard drumming (if I could figure out how I would include the recording here!) and eventually tracked the bird down. Eventually and despite having no bins it fed really closely at head height. Much more fluffed up that this picture the white became extended to appear a continuous patch contrasting with the barred wing and black mantle . I didn't get a great look at the head but a red forecrown and relatively open face was clear and the dark moustachial was indistinct which looked atypical for a Dendrocopos. The bird fed very much like a Downy moving easily on the outer twigs and hanging on the underside of branches, often flitting to a nearby perch rather than long traverses.

So something bugged me about this and the Moscow bird group coordinator also reported that this would be extremely rare when I reported the following day. It turns out Middle Spots don't drum much and this one certainly was. So large white area on the back and vague face pattern mislead me to the wrong ID. It seems this is a lesser spot all along. It was present again the following day (see report) and drumming again but disturbed and not giving great views. Cross it off the list! :)