The tree creepers in the park
Large trees are not usually what is thought of in connection with cities, but it is actually not that rare that you find a city park with trees of a considerable size. For example in London, where there are trees as old as Metusalem, and where it is possible to find stag beetles and other exotic species which use the trees as their habitats. In Denmark, it is most commonly the birds, which use the oak trees.
One of the species, which is found in both Aarhus and Copenhagen, is small and brown. You notice it when it suddenly sprints down from the treetops and lands at the bottom of the tree where after it starts climbing up again. This is a tree creeper – a small woodpecker’ish bird, which otherwise does not show itself very often. It has an odd appearance with an arched beak, which it uses to dig small creatures out of the bark.
The tree creeper is very common in the area’s leafy and coniferous woods, but it keeps to itself. It is not shy, but it has the habit of going to the backside of the tree trunk if you get too close. This is so it can climb up the tree at its own pace while it is looking for edible creatures in the bark.
It might be considered a little lazy to merely call it a tree creeper, because it is in fact the short-toed tree creeper, which during the last decades has spread widely in Denmark. It immigrated from the south in the 1930s and it is now widely found up until the edge of Hobro. It is especially numerous in older oak plantations, and despite it looking like the tree creeper, it has a very distinct sound. It is a forceful tyyt-tyyt calling which can be heard from far away. In addition to this, the short-toed tree creeper is distinguishable as it has a longer beak than its ordinary cousin does and it is dingy on its abdomen. Nevertheless, the sound is by far the best way to tell the two apart.
Another, and quite peculiar, characteristic of the short-toed tree creeper is that it is one pissed-off little creature. If it hears a common tree creeper calling, it will freak out. This is contrary to the mood of the common tree creeper when it hears its cousin making sounds. This might just be due to the fact that the common tree creeper is exactly that: common. It does not have many habitat requirements and it is thus found in my forest types. The short-toed creeper, however, wants old oak.