Pittswood Birds

Apart from a few bright spells early this morning, the day remained stubbornly grey and cloudy, with an increasing SW wind.

My walk into work proved unrewarding early this morning, it seems i'm too early for most of the passerines, only HERRING GULLS and ROOKS were about. On my way back home 5hrs later, I fared little better, the only birds of interest were the STARLINGS at Migrant Alley, numbers are now starting to increase as they flock together for the coming Winter. One thing I haven't been seeing so far this Autumn is the annual Crane fly hatching, or is that still to come ? It's this food bonanza that brings in the passage migrants to the fields.

My afternoon walk took me over to the Lakes and scrub area, where the only summer migrants seen were two BLACKCAPS and two CHIFFCHAFFS, I could have stayed at home and seen those, as they were both seen in my garden whilst I had lunch, they were tucking into the berries from my burgeoning Elder tree :-) ( These were the 32nd and 33rd species to visit my garden this year)

The lake held little of interest, although the GREY HERON that fished there is a welcome treat, other than that it was MALLARDS, two of ! ( see how lucky you are Dean with grebes and tufties)

Walking back, through the Wet Woods, a small mixed feeding flock was chanced upon, made up of COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER and the plentiful BLUE and GREAT TITS. A further visit to Migrant Alley proved very disappointing, with just the MEADOW PIPITS of any note.

More poor weather forecast for tomorrow, is it time to put the camera away for the winter ?