Pittswood Birds

It was a sunny but cold morning for todays walk round, but later in the morning, once out of the wind, and into the sun, it felt quite reasonable.
I started my walk by going up the western end of Ashes lane to visit the wild bird crop, there were 5 YELLOWHAMMERS in the adjacent hedge, but no Reedbuntings were present, I think I was a bit early. I cut through the small holding, to get to the wet woods, and picked up some common species as well as NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER and a pair of STOCK DOVES, only the second record this month. The wet woods was lifeless, and the lake area was frozen over, so it was pretty deserted, just MALLARD and MOORHEN were seen here, but a KIGFISHER flew low over the ice.A pair of MARSH TITS fed at a garden feeder nearby, but the long staying Coot had departed, or was very well concealed.
On the farmland the number of LAPWING had increased slightly, 73 were present on the Maize stubbles, and around 200 BLACK HEADED GULL were with them, and also spread out on the sheep pasture. A KESTREL hunted over the nearby hedgerow and a LITTLE EGRET flew over, presumably the same bird i've been seeing for the past few days, another flyover was a GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL, always a scarce species over my patch. A group of 30 - 40 SISKIN were in the alders along the stream, and the grounds of the college held plenty of BLACKBIRDS and SONGTHRUSH on the lawns. Crossing back over Migrant Alley,SKYLARK, REDWING and GREY WAGTAIL were recorded, just a single of each.
It was a little disappointing to have only reached 45 species today, especially as some regular species like Coal Tit, Pheasant,Fieldfare, and Long Tailed Tit, weren't recorded, and recent regulars like the Coot, Barn Owl and Cormorant might well have been expected. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

despite some bright sunshine, photographic opportunities were rare on my walk. So I took some pics of the finch's in my garden instead.
Below are: Top CHAFFINCH, then GOLDFINCH, then GREENFINCH. The bottom BLUE TIT was just asking to be photographed so I obliged it!.