Pittswood Birds

Back out on my patch this afternoon after work. I headed off for the small holding, wet woods and lake area, but despite yesterdays rain, and todays warmer temperatures, most of the snow is still hangng about, and the lake is frozen from bank to bank. As a result not much out of the ordinary was seen, 3 BULLFINCH'S and a small flock of CHAFFINCH seemed to prefer foraging around the Small Holding, rather than coming into my nearby garden for the gourmet sunflower hearts.

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, half a dozen SISKIN and 2 TREECREEPER were in the Wet Woods, one continues to sing, so the cold weather doesn't seem to have bothered it too much. Absolutely nothing was on the iced up lake!

I decided I might do better going over to Migrant Alley for a skywatch, which did give me a new species for the month when a COMMON GULL flew low over, a bird not seen on my patch very often at all, an even more scarce Gull, the GREAT BLACK BACKED also put in an appearance, two in fact flew over heading south, I did record one earlier this month, quite unusual to have two sightings of this gull in one month, very nice! Two single LAPWINGS, a SKYLARK, a GOLDFINCH, a GREY HERON, 5 FIELDFARE, a MISTLE THUSH, a SPARROWHAWK, numerous WOODPIGEONS, JACKDAWS, ROOKS and CARRION CROWS were all seen headed in various directions, and the KESTREL hunted around the adjacent Greenhouse Complex. That was about the extent of my skywatch - not too bad for 90 mins, but I had to give up a bit early as my feet were getting like ice blocks.

About 30 LINNETS were seen in their pre-roost tree as I walked home along Ashes Lane.

I took a few photo's today, below is a male BLACKBIRD

Above is a male Bullfinch, pity I couldn't get any closer to it.

Above is one of the Linnets at the very top of the pre-roost tree

Lastly, this is a view looking north across a snowy Migrant Alley