Pittswood Birds

More settled weather for this mornings patch walk, although a cold NE wind blew, keeping the temperature down from the highs seen yesterday.

I had a friend walk round with me today, and I was hoping to find a new migrant species to show him, but it's still the waiting game as far as they are concerned, and no new summer visitors had arrived overnight.

The cold of the morning depressed much of the bird song and activity, and there was not much to show to my companion, but we managed to tick off a steady list of common species, as well as the summer migrants that had arrived, BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, and SWALLOW. One of the highlights of the walk was hearing a LESSER REDPOLL (62) go over Migrant Alley, calling as it went.

A walk over to the lake area provided another highlight, in the form of the feral BARNACLE GOOSE (63), a plastic monthly tick, which also by the way, brings the combimed 9 year April count to the magic 100 mark! It was interesting to see it paired up with a CANADA GOOSE, maybe we will see some Canacle Geese later this year :-) Also on the lake were 3 GREYLAG GEESE, but not one Mallard!

We ended the walk with a 20min skywatch at Migrant Alley, which produced HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS, KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK, a pair of BUZZARD and a calling LITTLE OWL from the small copse behind the Greenhouse Complex.

Back out again eraly tomorrow - surely a Cuckoo will call for me ?

No pics today - I thought it a bit rude to take the camera out in company :-)