Pittswood Birds

A trek over to the scrub area this afternoon didn't provide me with the awaited migrant Turtle dove, despite sitting and listening for 40mins, but they will be here soon enough, saying that though, the earliest record was on the 17th April back in 2003, with the mean arrival date being the 24th and the latest date on May 1st. I looked at the Lesser Whitethroat records, and found that the arrival date this year, was the same as last, with a mean arrival date of the 24th. While I sat listening to the limited singing going on around me, a KESTREL flew fast and low over my head, not much more to mention than that!

Over at migrant alley...... (One or two people have asked about the name 'migrant alley' . It is a set of fields - Horse paddocks, sheep pasture, and a field for crops, bounded by fences and young hedgrows. It is here that in spring and autumn migration times, that I can record scarce passage migrants, such as Wheatear, Whinchat, Stonechat, Redstart, Blackredstart and Yellow Wagtail as well as a few flyover rareaties. Passage is better in Autumn than spring, and Migrant alley is my own name for it.)......Anyway, the day has finally arrived when the gas pipeline work has started in earnest, I arrived today to find, lorries, dumptrucks, diggers and bulldozers all over the place. Hundreds of meters of fencing has gone up and workmen were everywhere. All this has to be lived with for the next 6 months, I just hope it doesn't affect the migrants when its all finished.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't see an awful lot, I could still get to my seat and skywatch however, and I saw both PEREGRINES over the workers, high up though. Also the SPARROWHAWK put in it's daily appearence. I only stayed for half an hour, lets hope it's a bit quiter tomorrow.


Below is a photo of the Kestrel that went over my head, too fast for me- i only got the back end of it!

Above is one of the Peregrines.....very high up!

Below is some of the choas at Migrant alley.