Pittswood Birds

I barely had two hours this afternoon before the evening started to draw in, thats not enough time!!

Most birds were seen in or around the small holding today, a flock of mixed Tits, with a few CHAFFINCH, 5 FIELDFARE, a SISKIN and a TREECREEPER all found something to eat in a hawthorne bush, whilst two GREEN WOODPECKERS and three JAYS were in the pear trees. Not much happening in the wet woods, so it was on to the lake area, where once again there were plenty of MALLARDS a few MOORHEN and, today, they were joined by a GREY HERON, not quite what I wanted, but better than nothing!
Both KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were hunting over the scrub area, but not alot else was seen there, I heard the MARSH TIT calling from the garden with the feeders, a quick look round didn't reveal it, but there were plenty of BLUE and GREAT TITS, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, a few GREENFINCH and a male PHEASANT under the feeders.

I quickly walked over to Migrant Alley, as the sun was already going down, and it was much the same as yesterday, SKYLARKS, MEADOW PIPITS and half a dozen BLACK HEADED GULLS. I sat on my seat and hoped for something new to fly over, but the only things of note were a YELLOWHAMMER and 10 LINNET, the latter went over to the tree nursery where they roost in amongst the Laurel shrubs - this will be the last winter that they can do this, as all the shrubs will be removed by next winter.

Its getting difficult to to find those new species needed for the November record of 66, given that the days are so short now, just seven more species would break the record, the most likely of which would be Little Owl, Kingfisher, Reed Bunting, or Lapwing, maybe one of the Peregrines will show up ? thats still only 5 though, so it looks like a tough target!


Above: Kestrel hunting over the scrub around the lake, seen below