Pittswood Birds

A fine wetting rain was falling when I left at 06:00 this morning, fitting, as it's mid-summers day! It didn't bode well for seeing many bird species, and even worse for recording insects. I was soaked from the rain dripping from the trees, as well as brushing up against the wet vegetation.
As expected birdsong was limited to the more hardy resident species - SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, DUNNOCK and WREN were the most evident, and only COMMON WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF and a single utterence from a LESSER WHITETHROAT was the sum of the migrant effort. The first part of my walk along the edge of the golf course, down cuckoo lane, into the lake area and through the wet woods was miserably wet, so much so, I had to change into fresh clothes for the second part of my walk.
It did dry up a bit for the trek through the tree nursery and onto migrant alley, and the college grounds. The most noteable thing were the amount of LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULLS that were going over, they continued all the time I was out, with just a single BLACK HEADED GULL. I found a butterfly along the wood edge at the headland of migrant alley, and identified it as a Large Skipper, the first one this year. Best bird seen today was a HOBBY that chased the SWALLOWS over the greenhouse complex, stunning little falcons!

Large Skipper.