Pittswood Birds

Isolated shower. Thats was the weather forecast for this afternoon. So why was it chucking it down at 13:00 when I walked home from work ? and again, 20mins later whilst out on my walk ? and yet again about 15:00, when a monstrous black cloud came over and ended proceedings for the day? Maybe it was just here in Pittswood it rained most of the afternoon, the rest of south east England got the ''Isolated shower'' !!!!

Anyway, thats got my moan about weather forecasters out of the way, The one brighter interlude that did appear, coincided with my appearence at the lake, having seen the same as yesterday through the wet woods - just calling GREAT TITS , I thought something might be happening on the water, but no, just 1 MALLARD and a 2 pairs of CANADA GEESE were present. A quick look at the feeders in the nearby garden produced a couple of SISKIN, the yellow on the rump of a male bird I was looking at, was a striking lemon yellow, very nice!

After trying to dodge in and out of cover to avoid another ''localised shower'', I arrived at migrant alley, muddy and wet. However, a nice migrant might cheer me up a bit, but it wasn't to be. I scanned the stubbles, and found 15 FIELDFARE and 2 REDWING and 4 SKYLARK, as well as 4 PIED WAGTAILS that were chasing each other over the fields. I scanned the sky for 20mins or so, but all I saw was a huge black cloud approaching, another of those localised showers! This one was looking real nasty, so i beat a retreat and got home just as the heavens opened.

There was nothing else to do but watch the feeders and hope for a bright spell to get some photo's, but it didn't come and dusk came early. I did try for some pics though, the last photo is of a ROBIN and the one above it is of a male CHAFFINCH. I normally like a shutter speed of at least 800, but it was so dark the two pics had a speed of 20! The camera did a pretty good job though.

Below is the footpath I take through the wet woods, further heavy overnight rain had made the conditions a little wet, even for these woods! The soil is heavy clay and the water sits in the pits made by past generations removing the clay for brickmaking. (Hence the name of the hamlet I live in Pitt's wood)..........blimey, it must of been a slow birding day, I'm going on about local history!
Below is the only photo I got during the brief brighter interlude at the lake. A CANADA GOOSE, who doesn't care how much it rains.