Pittswood Birds

It rained for most of the morning -the first proper rain for weeks, and this afternoon a low dull cloud continued to keep things dull and damp.

Around 16:00 the cloud started to break, and some sunshine broke through, my cue to get out around the Tree Nursery and Paddocks at Migrant Alley.

There were no butterflies or moths to be found along the hedgerow in the Tree Nursery, but DUNNOCK, WHITETHROAT and CHAFFINCH were all back and forth with food for thier nestlings. A quick walk around the Nursery perimeter produced a few common species, GREENFINCH, MAGPIE, GOLDCREST, ROBIN, WREN and a GREEN WOODPECKER.

A circuit around the Sheep Pasture and Paddocks at Migrant Alley was a pleasant enough walk, ROOKS, JACKDAWS, CARRION CROWS, WOODPIGEONS and LINNETS were all to be found, as well as two STOCK DOVES. I reached my skywatching seat at 17:10, and sat for an hour to see if anything interesting might go over, Black Headed Gull or a Lapwing would be good. A Gull came over straight away, but it was a HERRING GULL, a little later 3 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS went over, but that was it for the Gull species.

As I sat and listened, I could here a CUCKOO calling from the Lakeside Scrub area, a SONGTHRUSH singing from the Greenhouse Complex, a BLACKBIRD singing from one of the nearby gardens, and two SKYLARK over the cut silage field. As well as the earlier Gulls, flyovers included GOLDFINCH, TURTLE DOVE, KESTREL, PIED WAGTAIL, COLLARED DOVE, and the low flying SWALLOWS, above them were a couple of HOUSE MARTINS and even higher were at least two dozen SWIFTS. GREAT and BLUE TITS were in the Tall Hedge behind my seat, where another pair of Whitethroat were also present.

In all, a very relaxing late afternoon - but still nothing added to the months list, or the year list, just 4 days left to get those two species :-)

I took these two photo's in my garden - something to brighten the page up!

Above: Goldfinch's, Below: Jackdaw