Pittswood Birds

This morning both KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were seen up hunting over Migrant Alley as I walked in to work, but no migrants were seen on the fence lines.

This afternoon after work, the sun shone and a cool NE wind blew, I decided to spend my time in the shelter of the Scrubby Woods, and on arrival I was met excitedly by the Gardener of the adjacent large house, that owns the ornamental pond. He had found the COOTS nest and asked if I wanted to photograph it, I let him believe I knew nothing about the nest and let him show me through the garden. I took some photo's, but the nest was obscured by reeds, this is the first Coot to breed here in the 11 years ive lived in pittswood. The reason they have bred is that the large fish have been removed from the lake, ( on my advice)allowing for pond weed to grow and water life to return, in turn feeding the Coots, of course, I gave him the big ''I told you so'' :-)

Above: Coot on nest - never thought i'd say that!

I then spent an hour in the Scrubby Woods, the bird life was a bit subdued, CHIFFCHAFF, and BLACKCAP were the main songsters, and after a fruitless search for a Garden Warbler I turned my attention to the Butterflies, of which Comma, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, and Small White were seen. I also came across a superb Broad Bodied Chaser, and both Common and Azure Damselflies, my first ones of the year.

I left for home quite happy with the days finds, even if it was a rather birdless visit, but a stop off at the tree nursery had a bit of excitement, when I saw the Fox cubs moving amongst the nettles outside their den. I spent 15 mins creeping through sheep sh*t and nettles to try and get a photo of them, and I got a quick 3 photo's before the farmer and his dog came by to round up the sheep, the cubs bolted straight into their Den!

Also whilst at the nursery, I found my second BLACKBIRD fledgling, it was in the hedgerow, behind some rabbit fencing, as you can see :-)


Below is one of the fox cubs, worth getting stung and smelly for :-)

Above is a Red Admiral and below a Comma from the Scrubby Woods

Whilst this is the Broad Bodied Chaser also from the Scrubby Woods

These Two Damselflies were flying on the same patch of vegetation, the above I believe is a Common Blue and below is the Azure - I may be wrong, i'm not good with these little blue ones :-)