Pittswood Birds

YELLOWHAMMER

An excellent morning was had today, with 50 species beeing seen. The highlights were - a superb male STONECHAT, one of several seen this autumn, this is usually a really scarce migrant on my patch. Also a WHEATEAR, another migrant, but a regular one in spring/autumn- this individual was the latest Autumn observation in the six years of visiting my patch. The good run of migrant sightings continued with a pair of SISKIN, found feeding in an alder, with half a dozen Goldfinchs.I arrived home to find a pair of BRAMBLING at the garden feeding station (part of my patch). This was the first Autumn sighting of this species for my patch, only previously being recorded in feb, March or April, it was also only the second record for my garden, the last was in 2002.
The total species for this October is now 61, an October high - joint with last year. The total for combined Octobers stands at 74.