Pittswood Birds

Back to the patch this morning, and it was warm and very humid, with everything dripping wet after a thunderstorm in the early hours, there was no wind at all and a thick mist hung in the air, I love mornings like these :-)

Every bird that sung or called could be heard clearly, over some distance, such was the ''thickness'' of the air, not a soul was up and about, probably due to the fact that it was so hard to sleep last night, it was so humid, so everyone was lying in, I felt like starting up a strimmer or lawn mower to get my own back on the twat who was cutting his lawn at 10:30 last night!

Anyway, as I walked down the lane my pencil was kept busy and I scribbled down ; WOODPIGEON, HOUSE SPARROW, COLLARED DOVE, CUCKOO, GOLDFINCH, BLUE TIT, MAGPIE, ROBIN, CHAFFINCH, WHITETHROAT, DUNNOCK, CARRION CROW, GREENFINCH, BLACKBIRD, WREN, PIED WAGTAIL, MALLARD, and SONGTHRUSH all in the first 200m of my walk, and in that order.

As I crossed the Tree Nursery a look up at the sky was rewarded with the first BLACK HEADED GULLS (59) of the month, good to see them again, they should become more common over my patch now breeding is ending. JACKDAW, GREAT TIT, ROOK, SKYLARK, LINNET, SWALLOW, CHIFFCHAFF, STARLING, and PHEASANT all went into the notebook as I made my way across Migrant Alley and into the College Grounds, where I watched the HOUSE MARTINS and re-located one of the SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS, its partner is probably on a nest in the grounds. The next species recorded was a real surprise for me, just as I had passed one of the small ponds, I stopped and had one more listen, and heard a REED WARBLER (60) start to sing, I scanned the Bulllrushes and managed to see it, before it dropped down deeper into the reeds, this is just the second one ive seen this year.

Walking back home for the halftime break, crossing the College Sports pitch and Migrant Alley for the second time, a few more species were added to the daylist - KESTREL, GREEN WOODPECKER, SWIFT, HERRING GULL and LESSER BLACKBACKED GULL.

After a quick snack and drink, I headed off out to the Lakeside Scrub, via the Wet Woods, but as I walked along Ashes lane I saw a bird fly up into the top of a beech tree, a quick look through the bins revealed it to be my first YELLOWHAMMER (61) of the month. Into the Wet Woods and such species as GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, TREECREEPER, STOCK DOVE and COAL TIT went onto the list.

The Lake and Lakeside Scrub held no surprises today, but it was full of calling Great and Blue Tit fledglings, as well as the expected BLACKCAP, TURTLE DOVE, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH and JAY.

A return to my skywatching seat for a quick bit of sky scanning yeilded a HOBBY but not much else, but I did get to see the LITTLE OWL perched on the Greenhouses. I left for home well pleased with the 3 new monthly species seen this morning, and the excellent day total of 51, but just for a bit of icing on the cake, I saw the LESSER WHITETHROAT fly across Ashes Lane where I suspect it is feeding some young nearby. 52 for the day - well good!


Below is the Little Owl on the Greenhouses

Below is the Yellowhammer, a species that is becoming very scarce on my patch now :-(

I also photographed this Speckled Wood Butterfly, the only species seen today.

Lastly, this fox was in a field of grass, I made the 'Rabbit in distress' noise, and sure enough over he came, I followed it through my camera lens, until it was 10 yards away, then decided to click the shutter, but the camera auto focused on a fenceline in front of the fox, which heard the lens noise and ran off! It did however stop and look back ( they always do!) so i got a more distant photo of it.