Pittswood Birds

Now it's gone mid july, I start to be on the lookout for migrant birds, visiting of course, Migrant alley. I start 15 mins earlier for work, and have a scan of the fence posts, rails, and dung heap on the way in. Today I drew a blank, as most days I do, but anyday now I will get the excitement of seeing a Whinchat, Stonechat, or maybe a Redstart..............I hope!
Back to reality, and it was a case of PIED WAGTAILS, LINNETS and SKYLARKS, with the SWALLOWS and SWIFTS overhead.
This Afternoon I visited the Lake and scrub area, but little was seen, a BLACKCAP sang, as did a CHIFFCHAFF, but some of the Chiffchaffs are now changing their song from ''Chiff- Chaff- Chiff- Chaff, to their autumnal call of ''Hooeeet'' A GREY HERON was on the lake with 6 moulting MALLARD. A walk through the tree nursery was aborted halfway, as the workers were there, so I went on to migrant alley, and the headland there, where the butterflies seem most active, there were plenty of Gatekeepers, Skippers, Meadow Browns and Speckled woods, and a tatty looking Red Admiral, but my best find was my first Dragonfly of the year, - A Brown Hawker, very nice too.

I managed a few shots before it flew off, the last shot shows just how well camoflaged they are in dense undergrowth.