Pittswood Birds

It was grey and dull, with rain blowing into my face as i crossed Migrant alley on the way home from work this afternoon, as I reached home, the rain had turned to bits of ice, and I was glad to get indoors.

As the conditions outside were miserable, I gave my patch walk a rare miss this afternoon, and spent some time ringing around trying to find out about Tree Preservation Orders, I may be too late to save the oaks that were felled in a large garden along Ashes lane the other day, but i'm going to try and save all the other trees along our lane!

I rang the local council, firstly to inquire about the trees that had been felled, was it done illegally ? The answer was not as straight forward as that (is it ever) Anyone can cut down a tree on their property as long as it has not got a Tree Preservation Order on it, and as long as they give six weeks notice to the council.

I then enquired about how to put a TPO on to a tree, and how many trees can I preserve, at this point I was passed over to another person, who listened to me very patiently and then told me I needed to talk to the local TPO officer. Ok, put me onto them I said, only to be told she was out, and would give me a call back later, I am still waiting.........................

Quick scans of my garden feeders, in between phone calls, was quite productive, despite the next doors garden works going on. 17 species were seen coming and going to the feeders, the best of which was the BRAMBLING again, but there were also around 50 other mixed finch's, also around 20 BLUE and GREAT TITS, mostly Blue Tits, 8 HOUSE SPARROWS, 2 each of BLACKBIRD, ROBIN, DUNNOCK and STARLING, 4 COLLARED DOVES, with singles of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JACKDAW, WREN, WOOD PIGEON and COAL TIT.

I'll let you know if I get any further with saving the trees of ashes lane!