Pittswood Birds

It was a frosty start to the morning, with none of the forecast sunshine, in fact an hour out it started to rain! The usual common species were around, and a few winter visitors showed up FIELDFARE and REDWING fed in hedgerows in small groups, a small flock of SISKIN fed in alders by the river Bourne and a BRAMBLING flew over calling, as they do, a new species for this month, in fact a new species for November! It was disappointing to see that a section of hedgerow had been removed at cuckoo lane, and an access gate put in its place, I hope this doesn't spell the end for the rough grassland behind it.



Another Patch Of Habitat Gone ?



Later in the morning I went to do my bird atlas TTV at TQ64J. Only 26 species were recorded but, a good find of 70 SKYLARKS and a dozen MEADOW PIPITS fed in some stubbles, this cheered me up a bit, after having to endure a shotgun going off every few minutes, some tosser was pigeon shooting all morning, I passed by his hide, and the field was strewn with corpses, proped up on sticks to entice more pigeons to their doom. One last highlight of the day was another species not seen this month - a LITTLE EGRET flew over the greenhouse complex as I walked back home through my patch. Novembers total is now 55 two behind the high of 2002, and equal to 2003 and 2005. The species count for combined Novembers is 68, so there is scope to reach a new high.
PS. early this year I planted a single teazel in my garden, hoping to get the classic view of a Goldfinch feeding on it. Up to now it has stood on its own, being ignored, the finchs preferring the niger and sunflower hearts. However this pm I saw one sitting on the teazel head..........a small triumph, in my small garden !!