Pittswood Birds

I cant believe that todays full patch walk was already the penultimate one ! Tomorrow will be the months 8th full patch visit, thats the minimum number that I do in any month.

The lovely sunny weather had gone today, leaving it grey and somewhat misty, with poor visibility, and this may have contributed to the only thinly distributed bird song heard during the 6 hour walk

Of the 48 species recorded, song was heard from BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, MISTLE THRUSH, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, LINNET, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, STOCK DOVE and CHIFFCHAFF, of which I counted 9. That sounds like a lot, but it was spread over the whole of my patch, and over the 6 hours!

I see by the comments on my posts that migrants are now arriving, but I didn't find any new ones today, my patch is mainly made up of secondary habitats, and the early arrivals go for the best habitat first, so they always visit me a little later. :-)

There were some birds of note still, despite the non arrival of the spring migrants, a REDWING was seen in the College gardens, and 5 MEADOW PIPITS flew over Migrant Alley, where there were 3 YELLOWHAMMERS on the new paddock. Flyovers by LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULL, as well as GREYLAG GOOSE and CORMORANT added some interest to the day list.

The COOTS remain on the lake, and with them were 6 MALLARD, 2 CANADA GEESE and 2 MOORHENS. Raptors today were represented by both KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK.

No butterflies were recorded in todays cooler, and duller conditions, and the task of recording them this summer has taken a devastating blow, as the small area that held so many of them last year, that was beside the Pub Field, went under the plough yesterday. An absolute disgrace ! All in the name of keeping things tidy! This area was left last year, so why plough it now? The college own it, and they are not exactly struggling to make ends meet, how much maize can you get from a tennis court sized area ? Not a lot, and certainly not worth the fuel the tractor used to plough it!!

Anyway, .......Photo's were few and far between today, but I thought you might be interested to see this Rabbit, it's half white and half normal, an attractive ''smokey'' colour :-)
Below is my first ''Ladies Smock'' flower. This wildflower is food for the larvae of Orange Tip butterfly, but its rare on my patch, it's only found in my garden ! A well managed area indeed :-)

This BRAMBLING visited my garden this afternoon, a nice looking male. That, along with the MARSH TIT that also visited, took the daylist to 50.