Pittswood Birds

A thick fog covered the area all day today, another strange meteorological event not forecast on this mornings weather !
I didn't expect much as I set of this afternoon, and I wasn't let down. The wet woods had a few birds present - NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, a pair of MALLARD and the odd MOORHEN on the now almost thawed pools. The lake had not thawed much from yesterday, and nothing was on the ice, but the ash tree favoured by the BULLFINCH'S was again host to 5 of them. I wanderd back along the footpath to the wet woods, being constantly, and annoyingly dripped on by the soaked trees, I was glad to reach the fence that led to the tree nursery, as I did so, I ''pinged'' the top run of barbed wire to get all the drips off before getting under it, when suddenly, up popped another WOODCOCK, right in front of me! The fifth record this month, it flew some 50yards down the side of the wood, so I went the other way so as not to flush it again.
Not a thing stirred through the tree nursery, and it was eerily silent, this silence carried on until I reached Migrant Alley, when at last some birds were seen - well - heard! I could hear the FIELDFARE and REDWING flock out on the sheep pasture, and the odd BLACK HEADED GULL, loomed out of the fog, before disappearing back again. I walked the perimeter of the maize stubbles, and heard SKYLARKS, then saw 9 of them fly up and further into the gloom, the occasional YELLOWHAMMER was heard also, and 2 LAPWING were just visable, but there were probably more.
So apart from the Woodcock, it was a disappointing afternoon, i'll have to remember the next time the weather forecasters say 'bright spells' it must be some sort of code for dense persistant fog !


Below: One of the bright spells along Ashes Lane
Another bright spell, looking across Migrant alley - had to turn the ISO on the camera down for this one (Not!!!)