Pittswood Birds

Today was a complete write-off. Heavy rain, gales and the fact I felt rubbish, kept me in all day. It did stop raining around 15:00, but heavy blustery showers took it's place!
I decided to watch and see what came to the garden feeders. The first thing I noticed was how wary everything was, the GREAT,BLUE and COAL TITS all made a grab for a sunflower heart and then dashed for cover, GREEN, GOLD and CHAFFINCH fed in just 2's and 3's, but didn't stay long. The reason of course was the pesky pair of SPARROWHAWKS that took it in turns to whizz through the garden every half an hour! Just one ROBIN, one DUNNOCK 2 HOUSE SPARROWS were seen during the day, with just 3 STARLING and 8 COLLARED DOVES. Some scarcer garden birds did come in, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER fed on the nuts, MAGPIE and JAY picked up the peanuts, that I left on the floor last night, and two NUTHATCH came and went, oh and a WOODPIGEON stayed for a drink at the pond.
Looking further out, over the wet woods I could see 30-50 HOUSE MARTINS battling through the wind,BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULL did the same but visability was very poor. Out the front, in the sheep pasture 2 MOORHEN fed along with a GREEN WOODPECKER and a couple of PIED WAGTAILS. I can hear a GOLDCREST around the garden as I write this, but I think that will be it for the day, apart from a ''leaning out the window'' session later tonight to try and get that Tawny Owl on my year list!

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER on the peanuts

STARLING feeding on what's left of the elder berries