Pittswood Birds

As of today i'm on holiday until the 20th, hurrah! So it was no surpsise when I found that this morning the sunshine had gone, and had been replaced by cloud and drizzle! Oh well, I set off out at 07:00 anyway, and it was immediately evident, by the lack of birdsong, that it was going to be a slow day, even the CHIFFCHAFFS were only half-heartedly singing.

The wildbird crop at the end of Ashes lane, seems to be less attractive to the yellowhammer and Reed Bunting flock, none were seen there today, just a PHEASANT and a DUNNOCK in the hedgerow there. A very 'samey' type walk was had through the smallholding, GREEN WOODPECKER, SONG and MISTLE THRUSH, with a few Tits and Finch's, braved the blowing drizzle. I kept an ear open for the first tentative calls of the Cuckoo, but they didn't arrive, my earliest Cuckoo was on the 11th Apr. and the mean arrival date is the 14th, so I am expecting them over this weekend. The wet woods only provided GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and more BLUE and GREAT TITS, but thats usual for this time of year. I arrived at the lake and saw just CANADA GEESE, and MOORHEN, with a single drake MALLARD, but in the adjacent scrubby area a BLACKCAP did give some song, along with WRENS, ROBINS and a GREENFINCH, whilst the BULLFINCH gave their usual melancholly 'sigh'.

A SKYLARK sang from up in the gloomy sky somewhere, as I crossed the tree nursery, but I couldn't locate it, as I looked, the only HERRING GULL of the morning flew over. Migrant Alley gave me PIED WAGTAIL, MEADOW PIPIT, STOCK DOVE, LINNET and the crowd of ROOKS, CROWS, and JACKDAWS to add to my list, as well as the flyover LESSER BLACK BACK GULL, and a pair of GREYLAG GEESE.

The stream by the college and the college grounds continued with the dull theme, just COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDFINCH and a SPARROWHAWK were added to the day list. I suppose the highlight of the day was seeing a LITTLE OWL in the small copse at migrant alley.

Oh well, tomorrows another day, but I might well do an evening stint at migrant alley later. I'll let you know tomorrow if anything turns up!

Below is one of only 2 photo's I got this morning. The wide eyed Little Owl.............

............and the empty plough at igrant Alley!