Pittswood Birds

Dawn Over Pittswood.

A five hour full patch walk from 05:45 onwards, was again undertaken in sunny warm conditions - once the sun was up and the early cloud had burnt away :-)

A total of 51 Species was recorded, amongst them were some newly arrived WHITETHROATS, there are now four singing, one along Ashes Lane, one in the Tree Nursery, one in the Greenhouse Complex grounds and one along the college stream. The LESSER WHITETHROAT has also been singing from the Greenhouse Complex Grounds for most of the day, and at least two TURTLE DOVES were heard, one from the wooded headland at Migrant Alley, and another from the Scrubby Woods adjacent to the lakes. One summer migrant that wasn't heard until early afternoon was the CUCKOO, strange, as they normally call constantly once they have their territory set up, it even becomes quite tedious to hear after a couple of hours!

On the lakes it was a case of CANADA GEESE, MOORHEN, and MALLARDS, but there were no coots! Maybe it was just hiding up, and the other was on her nest, I hope so! A bonus on the lake today was a male MANDARIN DUCK, which kept out of Photographic range.

In the Scrubby Woods, it was all BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS, no Garden Warbler yet, and sadly no Nightingale, looks like another blank year on my patch for this species. I had a check of the SONGTHRUSH nest, and found two half grown young in it, a small brood, but with this very dry spell we are having I think the adult birds will have difficulty finding enough invertebrates for feeding even these two.

An hours skywatch at Migrant Alley around 10:30 produced flyovers by 2 BUZZARD, 1 YELLOW WAGTAIL, 1 GREY HERON, 1 SPARROWHAWK, and 4 GREYLAG GEESE.

I noted a few Butterflies today too, including my first Large White, the 11th species for the year. Later in the afternoon while trying to photograph the birds at the feeders, I found my first Large Red damselfly, but failed even to photograph that!

Oh well some you win etc... I did get a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER photo though :-)