Pittswood Birds

A new month and a new challenge! Sept. is usually a good month for recording something different on my patch, lots of birds are dispersing or on migration so i'm always hopeful of picking up something new for the year list.

As stated yesterday the best Sept. species tally is 78 achieved last year, and is the joint best ever with last month, so trying to beat that will be a big ask!

This mornings walk to work added a few species for a decent start. In order of appearance I found, COLLARED DOVE, GREAT TIT, CHAFFINCH, STARLING, ROBIN, WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, HOUSE SPARROW, GOLDCREST, GREENFINCH, and BLUE TIT all along Ashes Lane, and PIED WAGTAIL, GREEN WOODPECKER, BLACKBIRD, LINNET, and WREN in the Greenhouse Complex Grounds. At Migrant Alley a CORMORANT flew over, a good bird to get early on, plus CHIFFCHAFF, ROOK, CARRION CROW, GOLDFINCH, SWALLOW, and JAY but it was to early for a Whinchat or Wheatear.

Through the College Grounds I added HOUSE MARTIN, TREECREEPER and SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, the latter will be leaving my patch very shortly so its good to find them in sept. This is only the 3rd time in nine years I have recorded them for Sept. The latest Flycatcher date is the 19th Sept. that was back in 2007.

After work, the walk home provided a flyover LESSER BLACKBACKED GULL, and thankfully a WHINCHAT was still at Migrant Alley - a good species to have :-) There were two more flyover species before I got home, a HERRING GULL and a HOBBY, whilst MAGPIE crept on the list as I entered my back door. Just NUTHATCH and DUNNOCK were added to the daylist as I watched the garden feeders over lunch.

Three hours spent out this afternoon walking around Migrant Alley and the Tree Nursery gave me just 4 more species for the day, a very poor return, they were all decent birds though. LITTLE OWL, calling from the Greenhouse Copse, a flyover STOCK DOVE, flyover COMMON BUZZARD and a LESSER WHITETHROAT in the Greenhouse Grounds, this species can be tricky to find on my patch in sept. A quick look at the garden feeders when I got home and both MARSH TIT and BULLFINCH turned up making 39 for the day, a reasonable start to the new month. :-)

Photo's today - Below: A Carrion Crow

and the Whinchat