Pittswood Birds

This morning was dry for my 4 hour walk, and not as windy as forecast. A total of 50 species was recorded, (with the help of COAL TIT and NUTHATCH at the garden feeders) an excellent total in any month, but even more so for November. 3 more new species for the month were seen, a GREY WAGTAIL, that flew from the stream behind the college, a GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL, that flew over the tree nursery, the first seen on any November day, and the PEREGRINE FALCON put in an appearance over Migrant Alley. KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were also seen over Migrant Alley, each putting up the ROOKS, MEADOW PIPITS, SKYLARKS and LINNETS, but numbers of these were smaller than of late, no more than a dozen of each. The BARN OWL was at it's roost, and on the lake a GREY HERON was in the shallows under the tree line, a KINGFISHER was also present and a CORMORANT flew over but didn't come in to fish. I didn't find the feeding flock in the wet woods, but a MARSH TIT was seen, whilst at least 5 MOORHENS were scrabbling around in the now rapidly filling pools. Still no Teal have been found in here this Autumn, the mean arrival for them is the 11th Nov. so they could turn up anytime now.

Above. A Skien of CANADA GEESE fly over the greenhouses.

Above. A flock of BLACK HEADED GULLS on the college sports pitch. The greenhouses can be seen in the background, they look quite near, but there is a horse paddock and the maize stubbles between the gulls and them, about 250m in all.

Above. A few early HERRING GULLS going over.