Pittswood Birds

Heavy cloud produced dull and dreary conditions all day today, but at least it was mild and dry with little wind.

This afternoon after work I took a walk over to the maize stubbles via the Tree Nursery, where not much bird activity was noted, just the 'yaffling' GREEN WOODPECKERS and a gang of MAGPIES, with a couple of JAYS collecting Acorns. I scanned the Maize stubbles and saw much the same as yesterday, a flock of 20 or so MEADOW PIPIT, 30-40 ROOKS with their allies the JACKDAWS, and a smattering of WOODPIGEON.

A cock PHEASANT gave me a fright as it flew up in front of me, it also made the Roe Deer break cover from the small grassy area. I snapped a few photo's of him, and watched it bound away to the far corner of the field, where it always walks the fence line looking for an escape, however today it made its escape ! Incredibly, someone had removed the top strand of barbed wire, and the deer managed to leap to freedom - what a bit of luck ;-)

Roe Deer, off to wander the woods and fields again, after 5 months in the same field :-)

I left the Maize stubbles and had a look over at the lakes and scrub area, hoping for a Coot or Tufted Duck, or maybe even something rarer, but it was not to be today, although there were more MALLARDS than usual spread over the 3 lakes, 18 in all, and also an increase in MOORHENS, 9 were counted today. A GREY HERON was on the main lake too, and a KINGFISHER flew from here over to the ornamental lake, both not run of the mill species on my patch , so nice to see them.

Moorhens on the ornamental lake.

Around the scrub and lakeside vegetation, all the usual species were seen today, including : NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, MARSH TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST and BULLFINCH. Whilst wandering the scrub, a thrush flew over, it didn't call and I only got a high silhouette of it, could it of been the first Redwing of the Autumn ? It probably was, but probably is not good enough, and a better view will have to be forthcoming. A shame, as this would have been my earliest Redwing sighting ever, the earliest Redwing sighting currently stands at Oct 4th, achieved in both 2003 and 2009.

A very brief visit was had over at Migrant Alley, where nothing new was noted, more Meadow Pipits, 2 SKYLARK, and the usual PIED WAGTAILS and LINNETS, but a low flyover from a COMMON BUZZARD was a nice record. As I neared home a SPARROWHAWK was seen exiting my garden - I wondered where that had been all afternoon :-)