Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1894

Dendrocopus major

A rare occasional visitor. In a county so sparsely timbered as Pembrokeshire the tree frequenting birds would be naturally rare.

We have never once seen the handsome Pied Woodpecker, but have been informed that it has been seen at Picton ; also at Castle Martin ; and Sir Hugh Owen has met with it at Landshipping, and knew of one killed many years ago at Williamston. One that had been killed close to the border of the county towards Carmarthenshire was brought to Jeffreys, the birdstuffer in Haverfordwest, about Easter, 1886.

Mr. Jefferys, of Tenby, informs us that he has received a fair number of Great Spotted Woodpeckers from Carmarthenshire, in which county, with its finer timber, Woodpeckers would be naturally more numerous than they are in such a bare county as Pembrokeshire. Mr. Tracy mentions an example of the Great Spotted Woodpecker that was shot at Lawrenny. Both species of the Spotted Woodpecker are fond of fruit, and in our county there is not much in the way of fruit to attract them.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands