Pittswood Birds

First thing this morning a very sad sight was before me, as I walked to work through the college grounds, I encountered two CARRION CROWS fighting over the body of a Tawny Owl, a sad sight indeed, as I rarely record this species as it is.

I decided that this afternoon I would spend a couple of hours skywatching over at migrant alley, I took the long route round, through the tree nursery, but apart from a singing WHITETHROAT, nothing was really happening.

I took my seat at 14:30hrs, and was immediatley rewarded with a SPARROWHAWK, good start I thought. The PIED WAGTAILS fed on the seedling maize field, and SWALLOWS zipped past them, a lone HOUSE MARTIN came over and snatched insects from the field surface, and over on the horse paddocks a small flock of LINNETS fed on dandilion seed heads, with them in the paddocks was a flock of spme 30 STARLINGS foraging for prey items to feed their nestlings.

The next Raptor on the list was one of the PEREGRINES, circling high, before moving SW. It was around an hour later that I saw a KESTREL hovering in the distance, but more interestingly, behind it a long way off, I could see a large rapter being mobbed by a crow. I took it to be a Buzzard, but I kept watching it, slowly it got a little nearer, but also higher, and slighly to the NW of me, I kept watching and following it, still closer it came, and I could now see it wasn't a Buzzard - now I was excited! Come on, I begged it, just a little closer, come overhead, but it stayed frustratingly high and to the NW. Occasionally the sun caught it, and I could see it was a pale bird, the wings were thin and made it look gull like, this has to be an Osprey I thought, but the views never got better and I watched the bird go further and further away. I'm 90% sure it was an Osprey, but cannot confirm it, so I can't count it! How bloody frustrating! Maybe an Osprey will be reported by local birders, so if anyone saw an Osprey around 16:20hrs, let me know!

I only got the one photo opportunity today, that was of this SKYLARK, in migrant alley