Pittswood Birds

A LITTE OWL (59) called repeatedly from the dark fields opposite my house as I left for work this morning, that made the cold and dark Monday morning walk a bit more bearable :-)

After work this afternoon it was back over to the lakes, via the Small holding and Wet woods, with a quick look at Migrant Alley just squeezed in before dusk. Both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were in the Small Holding, the later species making use of the old trees in the orchard, the other feeding in the long grass beneath them. A few of the usual common species were also seen here GREAT TIT, BLUE TIT, MAGPIE, COLLARED DOVE, JACKDAW and a SPARROWHAWK that rather annoyingly flew into the Wet woods just before I entered there. Only a few BLACKBIRDS and calling CHAFFINCH'S were left in there as I walked through, all the pits are frost free and beginning to fill with water now, so perhaps a Teal might be found here yet!

Walking the footpath from the Wet Woods to the lakes I came across a nice mixed feeding flock comprising of 15 LONG TAILED TITS, 2 GOLDCREST, 2 TREECREEPER, a NUTHATCH and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. They were all around me at close quarters, but the light was so poor I couldn't get a decent photo, despite spending ages trying. Below is what most of them came out like!!

Blurry Long tailed Tit !!

At the lakes all was quiet, but at least the ice had all but gone, just a thin veneer remained, that should quickly go now the mild weather has arrived. Around the lake and in the scrub, more Tits were flitting about, with them was the MARSH TIT, good to find that again :-). A small group of SISKIN were in an Alder, and BULLFINCH'S called from deeper in the scrub. A KESTREL was seen to be being chased by a pair of MAGPIES just as I left for Migrant Alley.

Once at Migrant Alley, I checked the boundary hedgerow with the Greenhouse Complex, a few GOLDFINCH'S and 4 more Siskin were seen in the Alders here, and the regular DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, SONGTHRUSH and Blackbirds fed in the lower part of the hedge. The sighting of another Goldcrest had me excited for a moment, as I thought it was a Firecrest as it flitted in some bramble.

A brief skywatch before leaving for home provided me with another Kestrel, or quite probably the same one as seen earlier, and another two Sparrowhawks were annoying the flocks of FIELDFARE and REDWING just off my patch, sending waves of them over Migrant Alley. BLACK HEADED GULLS and HERRING GULLS were criss-crossing between my patch and the fields around it, and 8 LAPWING (60) that came across with them were a welcome addition to the Months/years list, which is ticking along nicely at 60 now :-)

PS: I have now started a page for my Dragon/Damselfly sightings, it will be just photo's, the link can be found at the top of my side bar, under the butterfly link. Ive added skimmers, chasers and darters at the moment, i'll put more on in the next few days :-)