Pittswood Birds

I was bird ringing this morning, so didn't do a full patch walk today, however, I still struck lucky, as I waited for my lift at 05:00hrs, I saw a MUTE SWAN (66) fly over my house, a species mostly only ever seen flying over my patch, with a rare visit to the Lake, so this is a bonus bird for June :-)

The ringing was not as productive as we thought it may have been, mainly due to the stronger than forecast wind blowing the mist nets about. We caught 15 birds of 8 species, the highlight of those being a WREN and a BLACKBIRD that were both ringed three years ago by us. A bigger thrill would have been ringing the first SWALLOW caught at our site in the 6 years of ringing birds here, but I managed to to let it slip the net as I was untangling it.........bugger!

A couple of short afternoon visits to Migrant Alley and the Tree Nursery this afternoon didn't throw up the two more new species for the month needed to take the June record, but GREY HERON, KESTREL and CORMORANT were seen going over, the latter just the second one recorded this month, and best of all a PEREGRINE FALCON flew over allowing a blurry photograph :-)

Back out for a full patch walk tomorrow morning, hopefully to find those two species.

Above and below, once again I found and photographed a Common Blue Butterfly - I cant resist!

Here's the Peregrine, not the best photo, but it's recognisable :-)