Pittswood Birds

Sunshine! Finally the sun came out over my patch, and what a pleasure it was, the afternoon became warm, and there was no need for hat, scarf or overcoat. I only had an hour to visit the small holding, wet woods and lake area, and was rewarded with a sighting of the 'sunbathing' LITTLE OWL, in it's favoured tree at the small holding. ( I know I said no more pics of it, but fellow bloggers disagreed!). Also at the small holding I saw that the first celandine flowers had come out. The first few steps into the wet woods, showed that it hadn't been disturbed for a while, a flock of around 15 CHAFFINCH were feeding on the woodland floor, and one or two SISKIN were taking a drink at the edge of the pools. GOLDCREST were singing, as was COAL TIT and TREECREEPER, and a loose flock of LONG TAILED TIT were threading their way through the dense tangle of trees. Over at the lake, I had the idea of finding a Goosander or Little Grebe, but as usual I was just dreaming, and had to be content with the MALLARD, MOORHEN and CANADA GEESE, but a nice male BULLFINCH was some consolation.
The reason for such a short visit today was that i had a meeting with the manager of the tree nursery at 3 o'clock. We were just running through what work was going to be done over the coming nesting season, and how disturbance could be cut to a minimum. She was very helpful, and this year, hopefully the birds will not be disturbed, or their habitat cut back too early. It transpired that one of the fields is going to be completely cleared of all remaining trees next week, as the lease has run out on that particular field, and the land has to go back to how it was - a grass field. I dont know what the owners have in store for this field, but my patch will have yet another habitat change, lets hope it's a positive one.


Above the 'Sunbathing' Little Owl, and below my first sighting of celandine flowers + hover fly, or is it a bee fly. (Greenie?)

I did have a very brief scan over migrant alley, which was made even breifer by two of these monsters flying noisily low over head. needless to say everything left!