Pittswood Birds

It was good to get a morning visit to my patch today, it started slowly, probably due to the cool start, but picked up well as the day progressed. A CHIFFCHAFF was heard to sing in the tree nursery, and 4 CORMORANTS flew over as I stopped to listen. By the time I had reached Migrant Alley only 18 species had been seen, the nineteenth was added when a SEDGE WARBLER was seen at its usual place along the weedy edge of the Maize, but it was joined by another today. I didn't notice any other Migrants around and moved on to the Stream along the college and into the grounds. GOLDCREST and COAL TIT were seen, and HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS fed above, only just turned up from their roost. A KESTREL was seen being chased by a JACKDAW as I crossed the sports pitch to go back to Migrant Alley.

I decided to go along the footpath that runs through the scrub at the north end of Migrant alley, and soon had a bird fly across in front of me, it alighted halfway into a small oak tree, but I got my bins on it, and was delighted to see it was my first REDSTART (104 ) of the year! This really is a treat for my patch, I have only ever recorded them in 4 Autumns out of the 8 of watching my patch, and only ever see the one, so it could have easily been missed!

The Redstart was the 36th species, for the daylist, SKYLARK and BULLFINCH were added before my halftime break. After a snack I went round to the second part of my walk, the highlight of this was finding a large party of feeding birds, including BLUE, GREAT, COAL, MARSH and LONG TAILED TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, Chiffchaff and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. On the lake there was just a few MALLARD, no sign of that Kingfisher I need for the months list! There were a few more BLACKCAPS in the scrub, at least 4 were seen.

After completing my circuit, I went back over to Migrant Alley to see if anything had dropped in - it had, a Superb WHEATEAR - I knew I was missing these migrants whilst wasting my time at work!! I also saw 4 MEADOW PIPITS, and presumably the same TURTLE DOVE as I saw yesterday was still around, 11 days later than the previous latest date.

47 species for the day was a reasonable list, but it should have reached 50, had any geese turned up, or the Pheasant, Yellowhammer or Stock Dove. The months list moves on to 70 - just 3 more will set the sept. record.


Below is the Wheatear
And below is a Small Copper butterfly I found in the Lakeside scrub.