Pittswood Birds

It was nice to walk to work in the sunshine today, and what a cracking morning it was, it's nearly November, yet today was better than some of the days we had back in July!

I noticed more WOOD PIGEONS going south as I crossed Migrant Alley at 07:00hrs, quite decent sized flocks went overhead every few minutes, flocks were also seen to the west and east, I wonder how wider front they were going through at ?

The day continued sunny and warm for my afternoon walk, but the birds were as quiet as the weather, I suppose there is no need for them to constantly be out foraging for food when its this warm. I did see a few of the usual suspects though, 3 GREEN WOODPECKERS in the small holding, with two JAYS. A feeding flock in the wet woods contained BLUE, GREAT and LONG TAILED TITS, as well as the inevitable TREECREEPER. The lake life hasn't changed for a week, once again 6 MALLARDS, 8 MOORHENS and the GREY HERON were the only occupants.

The other side of having the light in the morning, is having the evenings draw in quicker, so by the time I got to Migrant Alley I only had an hour, before things started ''closing down'', so a quick circuit of the fields and paddocks was had followed by half an hours skyscanning. Again it was quiet, but I managed to find some SKYLARKS, MEADOW PIPITS, PIED WAGTAILS and the ever present JACKDAWS and ROOKS. The greenhouse complex wild areas were full of DUNNOCKS, a few WRENS and ROBINS, and the tall hedge had a few LINNET and Tit species in it.

My short skyscan came up with with KESTREL, that hunted around the Greenhouses, a SPARROWHAWK, and a COMMON BUZZARD that went over quite high, being mobbed by 80-100 corvids!

Still nothing new for the months list, I need just one more for the record, Ive got wed. thur and fri off this week, so I might just get lucky.



Above Kestrel, over the greenhouse area

Above: view over the seedling grass field, and across to a horse paddock. The trees in the background represent the northern boundary of my patch - the 'northern scrub' of Migrant Alley, its getting to be a bit mature to be called scrub now, more like a young woodland it's around 15 meters wide.