Pittswood Birds

Once again fog shrouded my patch this morning as I left for the penultimate patch walk of the year, but today the fog slowly lifted, leaving a damp, dull and dismal day.

Thankfully, the birding was anything but dismal, and an excellent day list of 50 species was recorded in the four and a half hours I was out, thats a full dozen more than yesterday, the main difference was the lifting of the fog, enabling me to see the flyovers! These included 3 separate WAXWINGS, they alone made the day for me, but species such as GREY HERON, LAPWING, 3 MEADOW PIPIT, SPARROWHAWK, KESTREL, BUZZARD, 14 MALLARD, 9 GREYLAG GEESE and 6 CORMORANT were also seen today, where as yesterday they would have been obscured by fog.

Three species of Gull were seen on the College Sports Pitch, HERRING, BLACK HEADED and COMMON GULL, with them were a few REDWING and FIELDFARE, more of these winter thrushes dropped down into the tree tops throughout the visit, but never more than a dozen of each species.

A GREY WAGTAIL was on the Manure heap at Migrant Alley, and a SNIPE was seen at the wet field margin by the Greenhouses, also of note was the small flock of YELLOWHAMMER seen at the north end headland of Migrant Alley, again 7 were present, as seen on Tuesday.

The Wet Woods were ringing to the sound of GREAT TITS calling, just a hint of spring, but its arrival was also being anticipated by the likes of singing ROBINS, COAL TIT, DUNNOCK and a drumming GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. Most of the other expected woodland species were recorded in the lakeside scrub, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, SISKIN, BULLFINCH, and GOLDCREST being the more noteworthy, with the latter species being especially numerous, with at least a dozen being seen over my patch today.

With the lakes still being 90% frozen, it looks like the months total will not be added to, however I did apparently manage to miss 9 Mute swans that flew over the Greenhouses while I was over at the lakes, they were reported by one of the ground staff that works there, and would have been the first this month had I seen them !

Yet again the weather prevented any Photo's being taken, hopefully it may just brighten up tomorrow.