Pittswood Birds

At last a bit of sunshine was had for this afternoons patch visit, the fog had just about cleared, and everything was dripping wet and sparkling in the Wet Woods.

Dripping wet and sparkling :-)

A party of LONG TAILED TITS were in the woods, but not alot travelled with them, just a few BLUE and GREAT TITS. GOLDCRESTS called from the well wooded gardens either side of the footpath that leads down to the lakes, where the normal resident MALLARDS and MOORHENS were the only things seen on it. A pair of BULLFINCH were seen and heard in the scrub, as well as NUTHATCH, more Goldcrest, and a few SONGTHRUSH'S.

I didn't stay long at the lake area, and moved on to the Pub Field, stopping off to look at the small drainage pond on the way (below)

Here there was another party f Long Tailed Tits, again with a few Blue and Great tits, with WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK all washing in the shallower waters edge. I always check this pool when it's got water in it, just in case something nice has dropped in - but it rarely does, just once a couple of Snipe were recorded, and once a Green Sandpiper.

In the adjacent Pub Field the maize stubbles had attracted 24 BLACK HEADED GULLS, but no amount of checking them could turn one into a Med Gull :-) There was still a bit of light left, so I made a quick trip around one of the sheep pasture fields and down along the Boundary hedgerow that separates it from the Greenhouse Complex. I recorded quite a few birds here, 2 SKYLARK and 4 MEADOW PIPIT flew up from the sheep pasture, the Tall hedge had a few BLACKBIRDS, plus 3 REDWING, a Songthrush, and more interestingly the CHIFFCHAFF, this is no doubt the one I saw here on the 13th. 4 FIELD FARE and a PIED WAGTAIL flew over, as did lone SISKINS and REDPOLLS.

As dusk fell I walked up ashes Lane to wait for the LINNETS to come into roost at the Tree Nursery, and 24 obliged. Not as many as the 100 or so seen last year, but more could join them later in the winter - but they better hurry, the work crew are removing the trees and shrubs quite quickly now!

I went a bit mad on Robin photo's, but as the blog's been short of photo's recently, it doesn't matter :-)

I caught the Robin by surprise and made it 'Jump' :-)

Below is a nice female Blackbird that sat and posed nicely in the fading light.