Pittswood Birds

Although the afternoon gave some nice warm spells of sunshine, my mornings walk took place in dull conditions, as the sun remained stubbornly behind the the third of the sky that had cloud cover! Not a bad tally was had though, 49 species in all, and the 17th was a PEREGRINE that flew over the tree nursery carrying a large item of prey, this is the second time i've seen it carrying it's prey back to the tower at this time of morning. Also on the raptor front, a large female SPARROWHAWK and a KESTREL were both seen over the maize stubbles. FIELDFARE and REDWING were in short supply, with just a dozen of the former seen, perched in a large ash tree, with two of the latter. The hedgerow I walk along to get from the tree nursery to migrant alley, had two MEADOW PIPITS sitting on it, and as I checked them out, a GREY HERON flew low over. A look at the wildbird crop at the west end of ashes lane was a delight, as I stopped to count the flock, a tractor drove up the hedge lined side road, flushing all the birds from the hedge and crop, I initially thought about 10 YELLOWHAMMER and 15 REED BUNTING were there, but as the flock took to the sky I could see 60 birds easily, most of which were Reed Buntings, a really good count of the latter for an inland area. In the wet woods I encountered all those sometimes hard to find species that can often elude me, not often that happens, 5 Tit species, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, and SISKIN were all vocal. The lake area continues to disappoint, with just MALLARD and CANADA GOOSE present, and the MOORHENS chasing each other across the top of the water. It looks more and more like i'll have to wait until early next winter to get some duck species now, if any at all. ( including that darn Coot!).

As I walked up to my house the sun predictably broke through, and I snapped a pic. of GREENFINCH at the feeders in the back garden. (below)

Below is a Male CHAFFINCH. It was belting out it's song from one of the posts in the Raspberry cane area.

Below is the Female Sparrowhawk that was hunting for most of the morning

A quick venture out into the garden this afternoon produced my first Bumble bee of the year,

And a good show of Crocus