Pittswood Birds

This afternoon I walked over to the Tree Nursery to see what Butterflies were about, and despite a fresh breeze I manged to find a few, in the shelter of the shrubs. First up is the Common Blue
Then the Brown Argus

And a Small Copper, all species that are easily seen here now.

There were a few birds about here too, a small flock of LINNETS, a pair of GREENFINCH, a PIED WAGTAIL and the WHITETHROAT that has made this place his territory for the summer.

I moved on for a visit to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, the Lakes were completely abandoned by all the Geese, Ducks, and Moorhens, and no Coot was seen either, must have been a bit of disturbance earlier in the day. The Scrubby Wood was more entertaining, BLACKCAPS, CHIFFCHAFFS, TURTLE DOVES, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN and SONGTHRUSH all sang constantly, while a CUCKOO arrived on the scene a bit later. More Butterflies were seen, ORANGE TIP, SPECKLED WOOD, LARGE and SMALL WHITE, COMMA and GREEN VEINED WHITE, plus also a few Damselflies were on the wing, White Legged, Azure Blue, and this Common Blue were all seen once the sun came out.

Whilst trying to photograph an Orange tip, and failing...again....I looked up and saw the unmistakable shape of yet another ( or the same as yesterday's ) RED KITE ! This one was only just above tree level, and was in superb light, but with just seconds to try and refocus from the close up butterfly shots I had been taking, the moment was lost, I should have re-set the focus to a mid distance, it's something I normally always do, that will teach me! At least I had good views, even without my bins on it :-)

Not much else to report on after that excitement, just the KESTREL up hunting over the Greenhouse Complex as I walked home. My high hopes of beating the 2009 fastest 100 species has finally been thwarted, but I could equal it if I find 3 new species for the year tomorrow - not much chance of that :-) It just goes to show what an incredible first part of the year I had in 2009, I think it's a record that will stand for a long time, but this year could make the second fastest 100 !

I took some more garden photo's later on, this STARLING had young to feed

As did this CHAFFINCH

Yesterday evening I had another visit from the fox, so i had to take a few photo's!