Birds of Paddock Wood : The Treecreeper

For many years now I have loved to watch treecreepers (Certhia familiaris)  in the woodlands around the town. The best place I know to see them (within our recording & blog tetrad - see 'The Paddock Wood Blog Area'), is in Foal Hurst Wood nature reserve, on the south west border of the town. 

In the winter, when the trees are bare, you can watch them hunting for tiny snack-sized morsels of food, among many of the larger oak trees to be found within the wood. Mouse like in size and movement, treecreeper's actions match their build; delicate and dainty. They feed on the smallest of mini beasts. Spiders, insects, weevils etc are their prey and they use their curved, needle like, beak to winkle out their prey from the deep within cracks and crevices to be found on a  large oak tree.

They hunt in a methodical way, flying to the base of a large oak and then hopping up the main trunk in a spiraling motion, ever up wards until they reach a large limb of the tree, where upon they often follow the underside of limb towards its thinning branches. To help them hold on to  the tree’s bark they have outsized, but slender feet, with long gripping claws, plus strong stiff tail feathers for extra balance.

A mottling of dark & light brown, plus splashes of black and cream patches on their backs, provides them with the perfect camouflage, when they are still; which is not often. But it is their silky white underside that gives a softness to their appearances and endears to them to you.

One of the town's residents, Cathy, loves taking photographs of birds she see's in the countryside surrounding the town and she is kind enough to share these with me. Through hours of patience she captured this photo of a treecreeper, hunting for spiders in the trees crevices. Cathy's original photo is pin sharp and shows the bird in fantastic detail. To protect Cathy's copyright on the photo I have used photoshop to 'scramble' & reduce the photo somewhat, but you get the idea.

In the winter Treecreepers can still be seen fairly easily in the pockets of woodland around the town. Indeed, within Foal Hurst Wood, the volunteers who look after the wood, have erected special nesting boxes for the birds to breed in. 

I hope they continue to remain a part of the town's wildlife treasures for many years to come :-)