Pittswood Birds

It couldn't have been more different, weatherwise, this morning. A strong SW wind blew, and rain was blowing across the fields, looking like smoke as it blew. Needless to say it was not good for finding birds! It took half an hour to find 10 species, one of them was the BARN OWL in it's shack. Two GREY WAGTAILS flew across the maize stubbles, where there seemed to be fewer LINNETS and MEADOW PIPITS, but more PIED WAGTAILS and WOODPIGEONS. SKYLARKS flew over SW, almost continually, whilst I was out, also going over were 3 flocks of REDWING, numbering 20 - 25 in each flock and just one FIELDFARE went over. A couple of GREY HERONS flew from the wet ditch, along with 4 MALLARD.
The setaside field at the other end of Ashes Lane had attracted a mixed flock of REED BUNTING and YELLOWHAMMER, just 4 of the latter and 3 of the former, but hopefully many more will be attracted by the food supply. The only other birds of note were 3 CORMORANT on the lake, and a quite large group of LONG TAILED TITS in the tree nursery. 42 species were recorded this morning, but the likes of Great spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Bullfinch wern't seen, but the first two did come into the garden later, along with both the MARSH TITS - nice.