Pittswood Birds

Small White Butterfly

After work this afternoon I ventured over to the Lakes and scrub area via the Wet Woods and Small Holding, the latter habitat looked promising for the first Redwing of the Autumn, with lots of falling crab apples and pears, but none had arrived yet. 5 JAYS were seen though, they are showing themselves well now, as they always do at this time of year, in a few weeks time they will dissolve back into the woods, to be heard but not seen. The Wet Woods were completely silent in the windless conditions, except for a distant ROBIN, one of the only songsters left at this time of year, but its cheerful song easily filled every corner of the woods.

On the lakes 25 MALLARD and 7 MOORHEN were seen, most of these on the main lake, whilst I was counting the Mallard a SPARROWHAWK flew over, making all the LONG TAILED TITS trill loudly in the distance. Not much else happening here, I could here GOLDCRESTS and the MARSH TIT calling, as well as NUTHATCH'S, above me the sky briefly filled with a scattering of HOUSE MARTINS, then they were gone as suddenly as they appeared.

Moving on to Migrant Alley, I stopped to photograph a Small White Butterfly in the Tree Nursery, and as I did, I heard a YELLOW WAGTAIL (54) call loudly as it flew Southwards, a good inclusion for the October list, and the second latest recording date for this summer species. Also in the Tree Nursery were 200-250 STARLINGS feeding on the Laurel berries, they were very flighty, and never stayed down long enough to grab more than one berry at a time - they know there is a Sparrowhawk on the prowl :-)

Migrant Alley itself was not forthcoming with Migrants, except for the 20 or so SWALLOWS feeding over the sheep pasture, these I think are the local breeders, still hanging around. Other than that it was the same species, those being ROOKS, JACKDAWS, LINNETS, PIED WAGTAILS and WOOD PIGEONS. Cutting across the Greenhouse Complex Grounds I found a CHIFFCHAFF in some dense bushes, along with a SONG THRUSH a few BLACKBIRDS, 5 DUNNOCKS, 2 ROBINS and two BULLFINCH'S , what a mixture :-)