Pittswood Birds

Cool and cloudy once again for this mornings patch walk, and it was ''as you were'' for the species count, although the 50 species today did have two not seen yesterday, a Juv. GREY WAGTAIL seen by the college stream, which could not have been raised far away, and also a SPARROWHAWK that was seen carrying off some unfortunate victim across the tree nursery, and into the wet woods.

Not much singing was heard this morning, but those who were trying included, the migants birds of BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, WHITETHROAT, and TURTLE DOVE, while the resident WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, BLACKBIRD, CHAFFINCH, GOLDCREST and SONG THRUSH all gave some song.

I noted a family of LESSER WHITETHROATS being fed in the college grounds, this pair have been very elusive birds, I only heard the male sing once!

This afternoon, the sun shone (at times) so I roamed around the Tree nursery boundary, looking for butterflies. I really wanted to find that Brown Argus again, but I failed. However I did get some pics of -
A Male Common Blue Butterfly, Ive had a female on my patch, but this is the first male, what a cracker!

Below is what i'm sure is a Small Skipper, and represents another new Butterfly species for my patch

I also saw another Small Tortoishell, lets hope they are on the raod to recovering some of their losses.

When I got home from ''butterfly hunting'' I was surprised to see this young Grass snake in my pond, it was only as thin as my finger and about 30cm long (about a foot in old money)

I couldn't have a post without a bird in it! So here's a Juv. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, taken this morning in the gloom!