Pittswood Birds

A LESSER WHITETHROAT from the substation pair sang this morning as I walked to work, the first song I've heard from one since early may, and as I crossed Migrant alley a GREY HERON flew over, and 5 MISTLE THRUSHES touched down in a horse paddock, as I scanned through them something caught my eye in the distance, it was a family of foxes, 4 in all, casual as you like, lounging in the early morning sunshine, one of them mornings when I just didn't want to go to work!

This afternoon, predictably, given the time of year, and time of day, things were not so easily forthcoming. I walked over to the lakeside scrub, via the tree nursery, the latter had lots of Meadow Brown butterflies wafting up before my steps, they are making the most of the grass that has replaced the trees and shrubs that were there, but it will all be short lived, as the rank grass and emerging brambles are all to be sprayed and then ploughed in, ready for the next tennant to mess up the countryside, errr.....I mean become a custodian of the countryside.

Over at the lake a Grey Heron was on its favoured perch, and a family of both CANADA GEESE and MALLARD were thriving. In the scrubby area, BULLFINCH, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT, LESSER WHITETHROAT, TURTLE DOVE and CHIFFCHAFF were all heard and seen, most with youngsters, but no young Turtle Doves yet.

A quick visit to Migrant alley produced the normal PIED WAGTAILS, LINNETS and the odd singing SKYLARK, and as I sat looking at the sky for Raptors, a CUCKOO sang from the direction of the lake area, as if to say ''see, ive not finished yet Mr know it all!'' it will be interesting none-the-less, to see if today is the last day he calls, as it will be the same as last year. (EDIT 1hr later! Just realised its the 16th today, so he called one day later this year!)

Not many chances came my way to photograph the birds, so here's a pic of my favourite plant - the Blackberry. It's flowers seem to attract many more insects than any wild plant, a shame it is seen as a unwanted weed by most landowners!

The next photo is for greenie - it's that orchid, possibly a Fragrant Orchid, it has a few more flowers now, I took a photo of it from a different angle here. Not a very good one, the sun went in!