Pittswood Birds

A rather rushed walked into work this morning due to a steady rain, meant little was seen, only thing of real note was seeing at least 2 more recently fledged SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS at the College Grounds.

The rain had stopped by the time I came back from work, but it had made little impact on the ground, a scrape across the soil at Migrant Alley with my boot, revealed bone dry earth less than a centimeter down.

After a bit to eat and drink, I walked the tree Nursery, and up the side of the Maize crop in the Pub Field to take me onto Migrant Alley. Very little was happening at all, birds or Butterfly wise. A LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew low over, toying with the strengthening wind, also plenty of WOODPIGEONS scurrying across the sky, trying to out-wit the shooters, poor bloody things cant settle anywhere :-(

On reaching Migrant Alley, it was less disturbed than of late, and a few PIED WAGTAILS and LINNETS were in the paddocks. Again I watched the female YELLOWHAMMER foraging for food to take back to her nestlings, once she had a beak full of insects, she flew way off over the Greenhouse Complex some 300m away, so her nest is probably just off patch.

A large mixed flock of 300 or so corvids, feeding in a recently harrowed field just off my patch, suddenly took to the sky in a swirling mass, looking like hundreds of black paper bags blowing round in a gale, the reason they all got up was a COMMON BUZZARD (68) flying over from my patch, it alighted in the field, which it now had to itself, that keeps the months list ticking over :-)

I made my round the paddocks and pasture, looking for migrant Wheatear, Stonechat or Whinchat, but nothing has arrived yet, just a GREEN WOODPECKER clinging to a fence post, and a flock of 14 GOLDFINCHES on thistle heads. As I neared my skywatching seat, a WHITETHROAT flew out of the Tall Hedge, and into the Greenhouse Complex grounds, but soon after that it started to rain again, with the breeze freshening up, that drizzly fine rain that soaks you in no time, so I headed off home.

I noticed that there was a large finch flock of 60-80 birds, mostly GREENFINCH flying around the house, around 20 would come to the garden, and would be joined by 20 or so BLUE and GREAT TITS, then before any more finch's could join the feeding they would all take off in panic, I suspect the Sparrowhawk was nearby, but I didn't see it.


The only photo I took today was of this Red Admiral, which settled on an aluminium gate.