Pittswood Birds

This photo of a Little Owl was taken at 19:30 this evening. It alighted just at the end of the garden, and gave me this one shot, beore flying off, with all the local passerines chasing it! I suppose technically I could count it as a Garden tick, as the branches of the tree overhang my garden !!

Earlier....................

At last a dry day! I got out this afternoon after work, and sat down in the tree nursery, where work has finished until the autumn. I spent a couple of hours watching the sky and listening to the birds in the habitat around me. In the sky a few heart stopping moments were caused only by a GREY HERON, a few LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULLS. The KESTREL was up and about again, I watched it catch a small vole, too far away to photograph though. A pair of TURTLE DOVES flew low over, and SWIFTS, SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS all hunted for insects overhead. WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP, CUCKOO, LINNET, YELLOWHAMMER, JAY as well as the usual BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSH and various finch's were all heard singing. There were gangs of newly fledged STARLINGS winging around, at times joining up to form a large group of around 60 birds. A pleasant afternoon........at last!

I watched this newly fledged GREAT SPOTTEDWOODPECKER on a telegraph pole, waiting to be fed.

It didn't have to wait long!

Whilst at home a bit later on, I found this female Common Newt, as I picked out some blanket weed.

This is one of the Iris's in my pond, what a cheering sight.