Pittswood Birds

First day of my holiday, and I didn't really spend much time on my patch! I had a bit of work to do first thing, surveying a Tetrad to the north of my patch. I finished that around 09:00, had some breakfast and then spent 90 mins out on the tree nursery and Migrant Alley.

Not much was seen, the weather isn't helping still, it was cool and windy, with some light showers being blown through, I actually wished I'd brought my woollen hat out, a warm hat in July!

I did witness the life and death struggle of a GOLDFINCH over the paddocks at Migrant Alley. A SPARROWHAWK was chasing the finch and not getting too close to it, but the finch made the mistake of going out into the open, where it was relentlessly persued, and once it was exhausted from the chase it was grabbed easily by the hawk. Two other Raptors were seen - a BUZZARD went high over, and a KESTREL was hunting over the greenhouses. A little while later I got fed up with the weather and went home to do some housework for the wife! ( well we're going away to Wales this saturday - no patch visits for a week, what will I miss?)

Around 15:30 I noticed the weather had cheered up a bit, so I went back out to find some butterflies, I did find some, but getting a photo was difficult as the wind was still blowing strongly. I found two Brown Argus, 4 Common Blue, many Painted ladies, Commas, Peacocks, Meadow browns and Gatekeepers.

At least now all my ''chores'' are out the way, and I've got a clear run till saturday, 3 full walks of my patch await, and I still need those 5 species to equal the July record.

Below are a couple of photo's I managed despite the wind. A Brown Argus - very nice. Front and back.