Pittswood Birds

Another expedition over to the Lakeside scrub was had this afternoon, mainly to see if I could find that Garden warbler I recorded last month, which has eluded me all this month. Unfortunately, not a sign of it was found, it's looking more likely that the bird I heard singing in May just passed through, and has not stayed to breed, but I wont give up looking just yet, as I have known them to go quiet in other years, only for them to become even more vocal later on :-)

There were only a few songsters about as I searched the scrub, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP and TURTLE DOVE were the summer migrants singing, with DUNNOCK, SONGTHRUSH, ROBIN and WREN replying for the resident species.

A quick scan round the lakes was had, and the only birds on them were a lone male MALLARD, and 4 CANADA GEESE, minding a creche of 9 well grown young. I looked up to the sky at something that caught my eye, hoping for a Red Kite, but it was in fact a female SPARROWHAWK wheeling round.

Not being successful on the Garden Warbler, I decided to go and see if I could find some butterflies in the Tree Nursery and Greenhouse Complex grounds, the former yeilded just one Common Blue, 1 Small Copper, and a Red Admiral, all of which escaped my camera - I blame this persistent NE wind! The habitat around the Greenhouses was successful, in the fact that my first Meadow Brown was found, a butterfly that will be very comonly seen in a few weeks - hopefully!

Birds seen around the greenhouses were ; WHITETHROAT, PIED WAGTAIL, SKYLARK and a pair of BULLFINCH'S, whilst overhead, SWIFT, SWALLOW, LESSER BLACKED BACKED GULL, and the ever present KESTREL were all noted.

As we move into the second half of June, I still need two more new species for the month to beat the June record of 67 ( set in 2008 ). Surley it can be achieved ?


I only took two photo's this afternoon, above is a Broad Bodied Chaser, and below is the first Meadow Brown of the year.