Pittswood Birds

This afternoon I thought i'd go over to the tree nursery and try to re-locate the Firecrest. Alas I couldn't find it, but there are quite a few acres of sapling tree's that it could be hiding in! Also the workcrew were busier today, and more disturbance was made. So after about 40mins of fruitless searching I made my way into the wet woods, just before I did, a KESTREL flew low over me. Once in the woods I tried to scan the top most branch's of the oak trees, looking for one of those elusive Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, but none was seen, but there were at least 4 TREECREEPERS seen and a small gathering of GOLDCREST. One was feeding on some fence rails, and I got within arms lenght of it as it fed on whatever was on the posts. I did a very quick walk over to the lake, just to see how frozen it was, and it was still solid, despite the slightly milder conditions today. I was at a bit of a loss about where to go next, I had passed through Migrant Alley earlier, on the way home from work, and apart from some confiding LAPWING it was quiet, there was also work going on round the adjacent greenhouse complex, so I thought i'd give the tree nursery another scan, whilst I plodded round the now slowly thawing mud, a male SPARROWHAWK shot past me, weaving it's way through the young laurel bushes, only the second time i've seen one this year, normally I see a couple every outing! just before Leaving for home, I checked out the pool of water that the drainage ditch from the nursery runs into, as I approached a SNIPE flew out, Snipe on consecutive days! Unheard of! This cold snap has certainly helped my species list this year. Apart from the LINNETS coming into roost, and a lone YELLOWHAMMER, that was about it for today.

Above: This Goldcrest was so busy feeding, it totally ignored the idiot poking a camera into its face!! It's a pity yesterday's Firecrest wasn't so obliging.